from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

We've some especially important articles this week. We're all familiar with the reports of the failure of Bt cotton in India, but with so much focus on the scientific and agronomic facts it's easy to forget that behind every blighted field of Bt cotton are hungry and desperate families. New reports from India give shocking accounts of the human suffering and devastation caused by Bt cotton (ASIA). The residents of one community have even been forced to put their village up for sale.

And even if you're familiar with the arguments around the lack of GM food safety data, you'll still find a superbly well-researched and informative article by Jeffrey Smith on the lack of GM food safety testing will manage to surprise and enlighten you further (FOOD SAFETY).

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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WTO
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
FOOD SAFETY
LOBBYWATCH
COMPANY NEWS
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
NANOTECHNOLOGY

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GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
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'Tis the season to be generous and GM Watch is asking for your support as we prepare to celebrate 7 years of running our e-mail lists - first launched in January 1999. In particular, we need financial donations and people with language skills to translate our bulletins so that we can reach the widest possible global readership.

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Keisuke Amagasa, NO! GMO Campaign, Japan

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WTO
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+ CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE CALLED TO OPPOSE GMOs AT WTO
In Hong Kong, civil society groups delivered a strong message to the sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in a petition against GMOs.

Presented to WTO deputy director-general Alejandro Jara, the petition urged the global body to respect people's self determination to "know and choose what they eat and farm", honour governments' right to "protect their citizens and the environment from GMO food and farming", and reject trading complaints of the US and other GM producers.

The outcome of a US-EU dispute being heard at the WTO over GMOs has wide ramifications for developing countries, anti-GM campaigners such as Vandana Shiva pointed out. Shiva said, "If Europe is losing, it means the rise of citizens everywhere to make protests - the rights of Monsanto are put above the people, and direct action is the answer".

The Hong Kong Ministerial of the WTO has met with widespread protests across Southeast Asia. NGOs and groups from all over India met in a two-day-long conference in Delhi in the week before Hong Kong to initiate a mass movement against the conference that they believe is a new instrument of colonialism.

"It is more difficult than the freedom struggle [against British rule in India]," says Amar Nath Jha. "Now, our own government, our own police are on their side [the WTO's and the multinationals']."

Madhuri of Jagriti Adivasi Dalit Sanghtan, working in Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh (India), agrees: "The Bt cotton crop was a failure, so many farmers committed suicide. But even after this, the MNCs, and disgustingly, the government too is encouraging farmers to use it."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6062

+ WTO THE POOR STAY POOR AND WE CARRY ON POLLUTING
Andy Rowell gives a rundown on the implications of the WTO meeting in Hong Kong. Once again, it's business as usual for the rich countries and poverty as usual for the third world:

EXCERPT: America has agreed to end its cotton subsidies by 2006. On the surface this is good news, but once again the devil is in the detail. Aftab Alam Khan from Action Aid points that "the vast majority of its nearly $4bn of subsidies takes the form of domestic support not export subsidies". So the inequality will continue.

This inequality is destroying third world farmers...

Now to add insult to injury, the US is trying to undermine these farmers even further by introducing genetically modified cotton into the African market. This could destroy the cotton farmers especially in countries like Mali, sub-Saharan Africa's largest cotton producer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6064

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THE AMERICAS
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+ BRAZIL CONTRABAND GM MAIZE CAUSES ALARM
Reports of illegal imports of GM maize in southern Brazil, crossing the Argentine border, have caused alarm among officials and experts, who warn that the crop's environmental effects could be worse than those of smuggled soybeans nine years ago.

Rio Grande do Sul legislative deputy Frei Sergio Gorgen denounced Agropecuaria Campesato before the judicial authorities for selling GM maize seed.

According to Gorgen, the GM maize variety marketed by this small company came from Argentina and belongs to Monsanto. Monsanto has been at the centre of Brazil's GM controversies since 1996, when its Roundup Ready soybeans were illegally disseminated throughout Rio Grande do Sul.

The prevalance of GM soybeans reached more than 80 percent of the area cultivated with soy, according to farmers' estimates. But maize is different, said Claudio Langone, deputy minister of environment. Because it is a "direct pollination" crop, GM genes can spread to conventional maize.

In Gorgen’s opinion, this case will not have the same fate as that of the smuggled soybean seed in the 1990s, which temporary laws accommodated as "fait accompli".

"The farmers have already realized what a disappointment the transgenic soy was -- an economic failure," because it requires more agro-chemicals, driving up production costs after the first few years, said Gorgen.

Furthermore, public opinion has "a different perception", the federation of big farmers said they would not put up with another case of illegal seed, and the meat industry fears losing export markets if its hogs and chicken are fed with GM maize, he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6078

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ASIA
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+ DEATH ALONG THE FAMISHED ROAD
Sonia Faleiro ventured into India’s hinterland to discover cataclysmic tales of deprivation and despair wreaked by Bt cotton cultivation.

EXCERPT from a vitally important article:
...This year has been the worst for Vidarbha's farmers since the first farmer's suicide seven years ago. In 2004, up to 80 percent of cotton growers harvested Bt, genetically modified seeds produced by a company called Monsanto. Recalls Hardikar, "When actor Nana Patekar, the brand ambassador of Monsanto, toured this region last year to promote Bt, his public meetings had a huge impact. Farmers went for Bt in a big way. But it boomeranged badly."

The seeds, with a starting price of Rs 1,600 (the hybrid variety cost Rs 450 a packet), have demonstrated no sustainability in the parched environment of Vidarbha. This year, the fungal infection Lal Rog struck the fields. Stretches of land in Yavatmal appear a hazy crimson in the distance. From close quarters, the withered cotton, branches red in colour, makes for an eerie sight. In the shadow of each failed harvest, stands an entire family, emaciated and hungry. "Monsanto's claim that a test application would involve minimum pesticides and maximum yield has proved fatal," says Kishore Tiwari, president, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6055

+ BT COTTON INTRODUCED IN HASTE EXPERT
The introduction of Bt cotton in India has been a hasty step, said Dr Myron Zalucki, an entomologist from the University of Queensland, Australia, who was recently at Punjab Agricultural University. Dr Zalucki said, "India, especially Punjab, should have done their share of intensive research and other alternative ways of saving cotton crop before allowing Bt cotton."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6071

+ PARLIAMENTARY WARNING ABOUT FARMER SUICIDES DUE TO BT COTTON
Expressing concerns over the number of farmer suicides in the country, R S members [RS = Rajya Sabha, the Indian Parliament] cautioned the government to be on the alert because large number of farmers in Mahrashtra and other cotton growing states had grown failure-prone Bt Cotton.

Raising the issue in Special Mentions ['Special Mentions' are made by Members of Parliament on matters of public importance], Mr Datta Meghe (NCP) said that the government has be on the alert in view of its policy of allowing GM Bt cotton in 20 lakh hectares of land, as this crop is susceptible to failures and it was a well known fact that the debt-troubled farmers attempted suicide.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6059

+ WE'RE SELLING OUR VILLAGE, SAY DESTITUTE BT COTTON FARMERS
Left destitute by failed Bt cotton crops and saddled with debts they incurred in order to grow the crop, desperate villagers are selling up and moving out. The 270-odd residents of Dorli in the hitherto prosperous region of Vidarbha unanimously arrived at the decision a day after the Vilasrao Deshmukh government announced its 'package' on December 8 for six districts of Vidarbha. The 'relief', note angry villagers, does not address their real problems or help anyone.

Dharmapal Jarunde, a villager, says: "All of us came together to discuss what next? We unanimously decided: 'Let's sell our village, pay the dues and move out. It's better than committing suicide'."

Balveer Omkar, one of the village's poor marginal farmers, asks: "Why did the government promise us Rs2700 before elections? Why did it ask us to sow costly Bt-cotton seeds? Has the government gone insane now?"

"This is our protest against the government. We will sell the village... we can't run our families and coexist as defaulters or debtors," he says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6059

+ NEW REPORTS ON BT COTTON FAILURE IN INDIA
Two newly available fact-finding reports on the Bt cotton problems in Andhra Pradesh show how the desperation induced by the problems of Bt cotton (suicide is mentioned by farmers as a way out of their difficulties) is itself being exploited by rival Bt cotton companies as a reason for purchasing their products in future.

These companies appear to be using the farmers' bad experiences with Bt cotton as a springboard for aggressively marketing their own brand of expensive Bt cottonseeds as the answer to the problems generated by their rivals' products. In this way each year's failure of Bt cotton is itself a means of maximizing Bt seed sales for the next year!

This farce has only been made possible because the Indian government has pinned its colours to the mast of Bt cotton, proclaiming it a breakthough technology.

The failure to enquire into its real performance is placing India's famers on a Bt treadmill from which - unless by suicide - they can gain no release.

EXCERPTS:
...the incidence of Jassids is severe in Bt cotton compared to Non-Bt cotton. There is 50-60% damage in Bt cotton due to jassids. The leaves in Bt cotton have become red and plants are stunted in growth. There are only 15-20 bolls/plant in Bt cotton compared to 40-50 bolls in Non-Bt cotton.

In these various kinds of Bt and non-Bt cotton, the worst hit cotton plots are legal Bt cotton fields viz., RCH-2 Bt and Bunny Bt with Jassids and secondary pests like Spodoptera and Sylapta. This clearly shows that minor pests that were not causing major damage have become major due to Bt cotton.

...instead of a proper analysis of the situation, the rumours being spread are that RCH-2 Bt cotton has failed completely and that Bunny Bt cotton performed better. Next year, many farmers are planning to go for Bunny-Bt cotton in a big way and the company has already started advertising about Bunny Bt cotton in the villages.

When the fact-finding team was discussing with a farmer of Bt cotton... a team of field assistants of a Bt cotton company came to the field. Finally they said to the farmer, "Brother, you spray Tracer once and your crop will yield tremendously. In the next village, there is a Bunny Bt cotton plot where each plant has 200 bolls. You should also go for Bunny Bt cotton next year". This is the way by which the... ground is being laid for the next year to lure farmers towards Bunny Bt cotton.

”¦ the government has to pro-actively assess the performance of Bt cotton in comparison to non-Bt cotton, understand the technology and its full ramifications and support the farmers in making informed choices rather than allow unilateral aggressive propaganda in favour of Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6060

+ BT OKRA FIELD TRIAL SERIOUS VIOLATIONS
The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture has visited a Bt okra field trial in a farmer's field in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and found serious violations of biosafety guidelines:
***The farmer was not informed that this was a GM crop trial.
***Since he did not know what the crop was, it was more likely that he would violate norms. He did. The farmer and his family consumed the untested and unapproved Bt okra from the trial plots.
***Now that the trial is officially over, the farmer has not been told what to do with the crop.
More and how to take action:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6077

+ JAPAN TO TEST CANADIAN RAPESEED FOR UNAPPROVED GMO
Japan plans to test rapeseed imports from Canada to check if they contain an unapproved strain of GM oilseed developed by Monsanto. An official at Japan's Health Ministry said that Canadian cargoes might be contaminated with RT73 Brassica rapa, a herbicide-resistant GM rapeseed strain not approved for human consumption in Japan.

Thanks to growing GM rapeseed, Canada has lost its former $32.68/tonne premium over Australian rapeseed, with its rapeseed now selling for $30/tonne less than Australian (non-GM) rapeseed. It has also lost markets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6082

+ U.S. BT TAINTED CARGO #14 IN JAPAN
Japan's agriculture ministry said it has discovered a 14th US feed grain cargo tainted with Syngenta’s unapproved Bt10 corn, and told the importer to destroy the tainted portion of the cargo or ship it back to the US.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6082

+ CHINESE ACTIVISTS VOW TO DESTROY GM RICE
Anti-GM activists in China have vowed to trash China's first commercial GM rice crop, Bt rice, if the authorities give the green light to full-scale production of the grain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6082

+ S. KOREA SCIENTIST FAKED RESULTS COLLABORATOR
South Korea's most renowned stem cell scientist fabricated key parts of a ground-breaking paper.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6053
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6067

+ KRAFT PROMISES TO SELL NON-GM FOOD IN CHINA
Kraft Foods has announced it will stop supplying GM food to China within one year. This is to include additives and flavours currently sold in the country. The new policy will go into effect as of January 2007. Kraft, the world's second largest food producer, is among several top ranking food companies who have already adopted a non-GM policy in China. Others include Pepsico Food, Coca-cola and Danone.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6070

+ "ASIAN ACTION TO STOP GM RICE" AT WTO MEETING
Mr Amagasa of 'NO! GMO Campaign Japan' made a speech at the WTO meeting that detailed both the amazing successes of the citizens' movement against GM rice in Japan and the difficulties they've faced.

EXCERPT:
In 2001, Monsanto's herbicide resistant GM rice R&D was forced into termination. It was the power of the citizens' movement spread throughout Japan, evolving around the NO! GMO Campaign, which brought the GM rice to a halt. Citizens from all over Japan met ”¦ in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, and gathered more than 580,000 signatures to oppose Monsanto and Aichi's GM rice. On 5 Dec. 2002, at its December Congress in Aichi Prefecture, the head of the Agriculture Department of Aichi announced that the Aichi and Monsanto collaboration project on GM rice would be discontinued. After experiencing this 'Aichi Shock', the targeting of Asian countries by Monsanto for GM rice R&D was aborted.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6061

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EUROPE
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+ EURO COMMISSION ALLOWS GM CONTAMINATION OF ORGANICS
The European Commission has authorised genetic contamination in organic agriculture, putting the biotech industry before organic farmers and consumers. In a draft Regulation on Organic Production, adopted by the Commission on 21 December, products containing up to 0.9% GMOs can be labelled as organic. This is a step backwards compared to existing EU legislation. The Organic Regulation currently in force does not allow an organic product to contain GMOs in any quantity.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6075

+ GERMAN MINISTER OKs GM CROPS
Germany's new food, agriculture, and consumer protection minister, Horst Seehofer, has announced strong support for GM agriculture and crop research, a sharp reversal of the anti-GM sentiment of his predecessor.

The shift in government thinking within Germany could have implications for EU policy, as Germany is the EU's largest nation and home to a strong anti-GM movement. Seed companies see Germany as a key battleground in their quest to win global support for GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6080

+ DISCONTENT SIMMERS OVER CHANGE IN GERMAN FARM POLICY
A row has broken out over new Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer's plans to cut backing for organic farming and pave the way for GM crops.

Germany's ministry for agriculture is fiercely denying reports about an impending U-turn in agricultural policies. Opposition Green party leaders and some ruling Social Democrats are unhappy about Seehofer's remarks on the future of organic farming.

After almost a decade of vast resources going into organic farming under the previous government, Seehofer said the coalition is not in a financial position to shell out extra money for a project that hasn't yielded the results once envisaged by the Greens.

GM WATCH comment: If Seehofer thinks organic farming is expensive, let's see how much money he shells out for cash-hungry GM crop development now that private funds are drying up (see COMPANY NEWS).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6083

+ GM FOOD MUST BE LABELLED IN BELARUS
Labelling of GM food is now law in Belarus. The Belarus decree also forbids the production or trade in children's food prepared using GM constituents. Russia is also tightening its labelling.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6063

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AFRICA
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+ USAID'S COVERT AGENDA IN AFRICA
Brewster Kneen argues that the aggressive US promotion of biotech worldwide, and particularly in Africa, is a cover for the nurturing of quasi-democratic governments that would not threaten the commercial and strategic interests of the US and its corporations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6079

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ NEW SCIENTIST LETTER ON GM FOOD TESTING
New Scientist (issue 2530) has published a letter from Bill Freese about the CSIRO study showing GM peas caused lung inflammation in mice:

EXCERPT:
When expressed in transgenic peas, an innocuous bean protein elicits immune reactions in mice, reviving concerns about the allergenic potential of genetically modified foods. These "surprising results" from researchers in Australia raise several intriguing questions.

Should regulators require the use of animal models? Allergenicity assessments of transgenic proteins in GM crops are usually limited to in vitro tests of digestive stability, database searches for sequence similarities to known allergens, and in some cases a heat stability test.

While certainly cheap and convenient for GM crop developers, such tests provide no direct immunological information and cannot rule out allergenic proteins. Both the BALB/c mouse strain used in the Australian pea study and the brown Norway rat have shown promise as predictors of human allergic response”¦.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6057
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6073

+ JEFFREY SMITH ON LACK OF GM FOOD SAFETY TESTING
Did you know that some GM foods are sensitizers, i.e. eating them increases the risk of having an allergic reaction to other foods? A superb article on the lack of GM food safety testing is worth reading in full for this and other unique insights:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6076

EXCERPT:
According to immunologist Ricki Helms, who has served on several expert panels examining the potential allergenicity of GM foods, "Animal models can contribute to the evaluation of allergenicity but cannot offer absolute certainty." This lack of certainty is a common justification by industry scientists for why they don’t use animal allergy studies as part of their assessments. The two methods that they prefer, however, also lack certainty.

In the first method, the transgenic proteins are put into test tubes with digestive enzymes and acid to measure how quickly they are broken down. This test is based on the fact that allergenic proteins often - but not always - break down slowly in the stomach and intestines. The problem is that test tube studies do not accurately predict what happens inside humans. And even if they did, a protein that is broken down quickly may still cause allergies. Thus, potentially harmful allergenic proteins can pass this test. In the other method, researchers search databases to see if the amino acid sequences of the transgenic protein are similar to known allergens. This method also offers no guarantees - not all allergenic sequences have been identified and allergenic proteins can certainly pass this test as well. In spite of the shortcomings of these two methods, the FAO-WHO recommends them as part of the assessment and offers specific criteria for each. Regulators can ignore those recommendations. The GM soy, corn, and papaya on the market, for example, fail the FAO-WHO criteria.

In addition to creating an immune response in mice, GM peas also increased their immune system’s sensitivity to other substances. For example, mice fed the non-GM peas showed no response to egg albumin. The GM-fed mice did have an immune reaction to the albumin, as well as to three other substances tested. The ability of one food to increase the sensitivity to other foods is called an "adjuvant" response. It suggests that humans fed GM peas might develop allergic or immune responses to a wide range of other foods.”¦ As you probably guessed, adjuvant testing is not part of any normal GM food approval process.

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ "LET THEM EAT PRECAUTION" NEW PRO-GM BOOK
A new book, Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics Is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture, has been published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) - a key promoter of the US's war agenda on Iraq. The book is full of righteous indignation at the denial of the supposed benefits of GM to the world's poor.

The list of contributors to Let Them Eat Precaution reads like a rogues' gallery. Take, for instance, Monsanto's former Internet PR chief - Jay Byrne. Byrne is credited with designing the notorious Monsanto/Bivings' "Fake Persuaders" campaign, which utilised fake email identities and a fake agricultural research centre to post poison pen attacks on Monsanto's critics.

Then there are AgBioWorld co-founders, C.S. Prakash and Gregory Conko. AgBioWorld was also party to the "Fake Persuaders" campaign, while Conko is a leading light of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which takes money from Monsanto, Exxon and Big Tobacco to aggressively promote the interests of all three! The AEI, incidentally, also takes Exxon's money and has even had Exxon's Vice President on its Board.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6065

+ KREBS REPEATS MONSANTO'S LIE
A reminder that ardent GM supporter, Prof Sir John Krebs, will devote this year's Royal Institution's Christmas lectures to the subject of food. The lectures, aimed at 11-14 year olds, will be broadcast on Channel Five television, 26-30 December, 1915 -2000hrs.

On BBC Radio 4's Start the Week recently, Sir John stated that GM was "just the same as plant breeding". This is misleading. Traditional plant varieties are produced by cross-pollination among the same, or closely related, species. In GM, genes from any class of organism (e.g. viruses, bacteria, unrelated plants, animals and even humans) can be randomly inserted into plants.

This is why the UK's Advertising Standards Agency upheld complaints against Monsanto when it claimed that GM was just an extension of traditional breeding.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6066

Mark Ruskell, speaker on the environment for the Scottish Greens, said: "Sir John used his position as head of the supposedly independent FSA to rubbish organic food and push GM down the public's throat. It's a shame that a group of teenagers now have to suffer his skewed and misinformed opinion."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6072

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO'S REVENUES FACE UPHILL BATTLE
By the end of the decade Monsanto's revenues from its cotton traits could be in severe decline, says a report from the Polaris Institute. The reversal is likely to happen because competitors plan to replace Monsanto traits with their own and others' technology. Delta and Pine Land says it will drop Monsanto's traits over a three-year period starting in 2009. Bayer is also in the process of switching away from Monsanto traits. The two companies control 75 percent of the cottonseed business.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6056

For the extraordinary bull Monsanto successfully feeds its investors on, see "37 mln-acre Europe biotech corn market"!
www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=4922

+ BIOTECH COMPANY CLOSES AFTER RUNNING OUT OF CASH
A company trying to produce pharmaceuticals in GM crops, the Large Scale Biology Corporation, based in Vacaville, Calif., has run out of money and shut its doors.

Robert L. Erwin, a founder and chairman of Large Scale, said the problem for his company was the reluctance of drug companies to have their products developed in crops: "There are very few corporate executives willing to bet on an unproven process."

Moreover, he said, pharmaceutical crop developers are wrong in assuming that lower production costs are an important consideration for drug companies. With high prices for their drugs, Erwin said, "cost is not really an issue for them."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6081

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PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
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+ PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE MAY BE MORE SCIENTIFIC THAN "SOUND SCIENCE"
When it comes to assessing the risks of GMOs, the precautionary principle may be more scientific than "sound science", says Prof Daryll. E. Ray. Prof Ray holds the Blasingame Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Policy, Institute of Agriculture, Univ of Tennessee.

EXCERPT: Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans provide us with a chance to apply these concepts to a situation most of us are familiar with. Those officials who supported cutting back on levee repairs were arguing that the likelihood of a Category 3 hurricane that would cause a breach in the levees was very small and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

This is the sound science argument which takes the risk assuming the levees will hold when in fact they won't. Those who were arguing for the levee expenditures and protecting the wetlands surrounding New Orleans were basing their argument on the precautionary principle. As we have seen, the sound science argument favors short-term economic gain over against the potential of catastrophic long-term costs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6058

+ INDEPENDENT SCIENTISTS' LETTER FOR GM OPPOSITION DAY
A well argued, carefully referenced letter summarizing the risks of GM from the Independent Scientists for Joint International GMO Opposition Day (20 December) is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6074

+ SCIENTISTS NEED PHILOSOPHERS TO HELP THEM UNDERSTAND
A letter in New Scientist (8 Jan 2005) says that scientists need philosophers (social scientists, etc.) to help them understand the realities of a complex environment in which powerful and self-interested lobby groups operate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6073

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NANOTECHNOLOGY
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+ WHEN TECHNOLOGY DISPLACES THE FARMER
Plans are afoot to use nanotechnology to produce commodities including 'synthetic' cotton and rubber. If adopted, this technology could make farmers redundant, with devastating effects on third world economies, says an article for the Panos Institute at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6068

Also on the subject of farmer displacement, George Monbiot explains how Britain's foreign aid has been used to bankroll a programme for mass starvation:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6068

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http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6043