WEEKLY WATCH number 231
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Look out for a very useful summary of the disturbing results of animal feeding studies to date on GM foods (FOOD SAFETY) and a superb overview of the mounting opposition to GMOs in Japan (ASIA).

If you've been bemused by the recent series of attacks on Al Gore's film on climate change, don't miss this week's LOBBYWATCH. The people behind the attacks have been fingered as the corporate front group the Scientific Alliance and its backers, acting in consort with the LM network-connected film director, Martin Durkin. Both the SA and LM will be familiar to GM Watch readers as lobbyists for GMOs. While their views constantly reach the media under the guise of being independent, few journalists bother to probe their real agenda or corporate links.

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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AUSTRALASIA
ASIA
AFRICA
EUROPE
FOOD SAFETY
THE AMERICAS
BIOFUELS
LOBBYWATCH
TAKE ACTION!

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ JAPAN URGES AUSTRALIA TO CONTINUE GM CROP BANS
A delegation representing Japanese food buyers has arrived in Australia to lobby state governments to maintain bans on GM food crops. Moratoria on commercial GM food crops in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are due to expire next year and are being reviewed. If the bans are lifted, GM canola crops could be planted. Anti-GM campaigner Ryoko Shimizu says the delegation represents almost three million Japanese consumers who would not want to buy GM canola. ''Now we import from Australia because of the GMO free status. So I believe it would damage the export market for Australian farmers,'' he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8371
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8387

+ GM FOOD LOBBY TARGETING AUSTRALIA, WARN COLUMBANS
As the GM food lobby pressures Australian states to lift their moratoria on GM crops, the Columban Centre for Peace, Ecology and Justice (PEJ) has issued a statement saying that GM food is a threat to food sovereignty. The moratoria were imposed in 2003-4. The Columban's statement says, 'The Columban Centre for Peace, Ecology and Justice's (PEJ's) primary concern is that the sheer strength of the pro-GM crop lobby in Australia will eventuate in States lifting their moratoria, giving the green light for GM food production which, once implemented, is irreversible. Where is the respect for life and God's creation when the simple human right to decide on what you consume can be imposed unawares? The reasons for the moratoria have not changed since 2003, in fact evidence from overseas and events in Australia have highlighted the importance for continuing the prohibitions.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8374

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ASIA
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+ WORLD FOOD DAY - BOYCOTT GM CORN, SOYA, CANOLA
On World Food Day, October 16, Kavitha Kuruganti of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture put out a call to consumers to boycott GM corn, soya and canola products. Consumers were reminded that the Government of India's recent decision to exempt GM food products from regulatory processes as well as labelling violates their right to safe food and their right to know.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8378

+ JAPANESE CONSUMERS WON'T ACCEPT GM
Superb overview of the high level of opposition to GMOs in Japan, complete with contact details and websites for further information. Conclusion: '...consumers in Japan will not accept GM food and GM agriculture, and they are building more and more alliances to say 'No!' to GMOs.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8385

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AFRICA
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+ MOST SOUTHERN AFRICAN FARMERS WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM GM
Agronomists and environmentalists who attended a three-day workshop on Economic Partnership Agreements and the need for the protection of farmers' rights which was held last week in Harare said modern biotechnology is very expensive in terms of access, affordability and suitability for smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Said Noah Zerbe, author of ''Biotechnology and Rural Development: Implications for Southern Africa Agriculture'', ''The benefits of biotechnology will not be felt evenly. Some will benefit, others will not. Or perhaps more accurately, in Southern Africa, some will benefit, most will not.''
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8375

+ KENYA: BIOSAFETY BILL RAISES CONCERNS
Street protests marked the debate on Kenya's controversial Biosafety Bill 2007 that has just gone through its second reading in Parliament. MPs also voiced concerns, including over poor farmers being at the mercy of Western companies selling expensive inputs. Questions were also raised as to why key financiers have given a wide berth to organic farming in Africa, yet international markets are desperately in need of organic products. The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, an organisation composed of 43 NGOs, farmer associations, consumer and community groups, has decried the deliberate weakening of the Bill so that the importation and commercialisation of GMOs can be ''h[a]ssle-free.'' The coalition also takes issue with the Bill's failure to incorporate the views of farmers and ordinary Kenyans.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8370
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8386

See also TAKE ACTION!

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EUROPE
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+ EU BLOCKS GM POTATOES, CORN
European Union governments have blocked approval of a GM potato made by BASF AG and three corn varieties developed by Monsanto. The opposition by health regulators from countries including Italy, Poland and Hungary prevents fast-track approval of the Amflora potato for animal feed and the corn types for feed and food. The European Commission, 27-nation EU's executive, must now ask government ministers to give their verdict in a step that will add months to a process the US says is too slow.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8377

+ U.S. EXPERT THANKS POLAND FOR STAYING GM-FREE
Report from Polish radio: Jeffrey Smith, an American expert on genetically modified food has thanked the Polish government for its efforts to keep Poland a GM foods-free country. Genetically modified food is not natural and not safe for your health, Smith told a press conference at the Polish environment ministry. It may do more harm than global warming, he added.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8377

+ IRELAND: GM FOODS SHOULD BE SUBJECTED TO FEEDING TRIALS - DOCTOR
In Ireland, the row over GM foods has escalated, with a letter in the Irish Medical News from Dr Elizabeth Cullen pointing out the risks: 'The potential health impacts of genetically engineered food is too serious an issue to ignore any longer. We are guinea pigs in a global experiment, but in which nobody is monitoring the results. The issue is of profound importance; surely feeding trials cannot be too much to ask?'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8372

+ IRELAND: GREEN U-TURN
Labour agriculture spokesman Sean Sherlock says the Greens in Ireland's coalition Government are allowing GM foods into Ireland, contrary to their stated policy. He said: ''They told us that once in government they would immediately declare Ireland a GM-free zone.'' But Mr Sherlock said that in a cynical U-turn the Greens are now allowing GM animal feed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8372

+ UK: GM PROTESTER HIT WITH FINE
A GM protester has been fined more than GBP400 for damaging a metal fence that collapsed under his weight as he tried to destroy a field full of GM potatoes. Activist Martin Shaw, from Oxford, failed in his bid to rip up the crop of spuds and was instead found guilty of criminal damage to the 6ft mesh fence which buckled under his weight as he tried to scale it. The field of supposedly blight-resistant potatoes developed by German-based company BASF in Cambridgeshire was destroyed days later by other activists.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8384
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8379

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ ANIMAL FEEDING TRIALS GIVE REASONS TO FEAR GM FOODS
Extract from very useful summary of the animal feeding studies to date on GM foods, from Gundula Azeez of the Soil Association:
In June 2005, after Greenpeace took Monsanto to court, the biotech company was forced to reveal its safety data for a GM maize. GM maize is widely used in animal feed, along with soya. The maize, Mon 863, had been genetically modified to produce a Bt-toxin, which kills maize pests. Monsanto's own studies showed that Mon 863 had statistically significant effects on rats that, according to a French scientist, indicated a toxic reaction. However the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) accepted Monsanto's arguments for why the findings should be ignored, and approved the GM maize.

The story of another approval shows how GM regulators can turn a blind eye to worrying evidence. After a trial of the GM oilseed rape, GT73, caused significant decreases in rats' weights, Monsanto said there were technical problems and repeated the study. The second study found that the GM-fed rats had larger liver weights. Monsanto said this trial should also be ignored as it was ''inconsistent'' with the first trial. When a third study found no problems, GT73 was approved by the EFSA.

Another recent study raised a new concern. Australian scientists inserted a gene from a kidney bean into peas to make them resistant to a weevil. They then fed the GM peas to mice for four weeks. Results published in 2005 showed this triggered allergic reactions and the mice's lung tissue became inflamed. The mice also became sensitive to other substances, such as egg white, whereas those fed non-GM peas did not.

The scientific community was surprised because the gene, when it was in the kidney bean, had been known to be safe. However, further tests revealed that when the gene was introduced into the pea, the pea had attached different chemicals to the protein produced by the gene, changing its safety. The scientists were forced to conclude that a gene that is safe in its native plant may become unsafe when inserted into a GM plant - contrary to what had been assumed by the GM regulators.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8383

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THE AMERICAS
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+ 89% OF AMERICANS WANT GM LABELS - IOWA POLITICIANS IN FAVOUR
Senator John Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Chris Dodd have all gone on record in favor of mandatory labelling of GM foods in Iowa as part of their presidential election campaigns. The three Democratic candidates join many leaders in Iowa and the country who are calling for mandatory labelling. Presidential candidate Representative Dennis Kucinich also supports labelling of GM foods and has led this effort in Congress for several years. A report funded by the USDA and conducted by Rutgers University found that 89% of the American public feels the federal government should require the labeling of GM foods. Only 10% felt that labeling should not be required.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8376

+ MOST AMERICANS UNAWARE OF GM FOODS
Surveys show that a majority of Americans are unaware that more than 70% of processed foods they eat contain ingredients from GM corn, soybeans, canola, and cotton. However, Americans are increasingly aware of one GM product in their food, and they don't like it. And the food industry is responding. Food retail giant Kroger recently announced that by February 2008 all its processed milk will be from cows not injected with a GM growth hormone known as recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) or rBGH.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8376

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BIOFUELS
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+ BP EXEC PIED AT EUROPE'S LARGEST BIOFUELS EVENT
Climate change activists from protest group Food Not Fuel entered the BioFuel Expo & Conference taking place at the Newark Showground, UK, and took over the keynote speech. Oliver Mace, CEO of BP Fuels, the lead sponsors of the event recieved a cream pie in the face. Another campaigner was D-locked to the podium and various alarms were set off. The hall was emptied and talks were canceled. There were no arrests.

Food Not Fuel were protesting against planned expansion of biofuels citing its contribution to deforestation and the fact that it will continue to contribute to climate change. The activists complained that biofuels on a large scale is greenwash and companies such as BP are ignoring its negative impacts on the environment. BP via its UC Berkeley deal and Mendel Biotechnology Inc. tie-up is working on the large-scale deployment of GMOs as part of its biofuels programme.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8389

+ PATENTS BIG FACTOR IN BIOFUELS MARKET
As the fast-growing biofuel market goes global, rules governing patents will play an increasingly important role in how the industry develops and who benefits, according to a new paper by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8388

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GM CHAMPION CLAIMS BLACKS LESS INTELLIGENT
Monsanto and the pro-GM lobby - most notably C.S. Prakash's AgBioWorld - have repeatedly traded on the support for GM crops of DNA co-discoverer and Nobel Laureate, James Watson. Earlier this year, for instance, Monsanto released an ''exclusive'' video they'd made of Watson expounding on his support for GM in agriculture. But, as Watson's latest claims make all too clear, scientific brilliance is not the same as wisdom or even always intellectual rigour.

Watson is at the centre of yet another row after claiming black people are less intelligent than whites. The 79-year-old geneticist said he was ''inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa'' because ''all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really''. He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that ''people who have to deal with black employees find this not true''. Watson has courted controversy in the past, reportedly saying that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual, and that he'd like to see all women genetically engineered to be pretty.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8380

+ PRAKASH CALLS FOR TARGETING OF SCIENTIST
C. S. Prakash of AgBioWorld and his associates have called for fellow GM lobbyists to target Dr Michael Antoniou of Kings College after he argued in an article in the UK's Independent newspaper that ''genetically modified crops are dangerous and unnecessary.'' Prakash writes, 'Several members [of AgBioWorld] expressed the need for a letter written not only to the newspaper but also the Dean of Kings College, pointing out the factual errors in the article. One member noted that another Associate Professor from a UK college published a similar article and after a letter was written to the University was forced to write a letter or apology for her 'fear monger lies.'' [Oh really, when was that then? - ed]
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8382

+ UK: GM LOBBY GROUP BEHIND CONTROVERSY OVER GORE FILM
Report from the Observer newspaper:
The school governor who challenged the screening of Al Gore's climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a Scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists'' claims about global warming.

Stewart Dimmock's high-profile fight to ban the film being shown in schools was depicted as a David and Goliath battle, with the Kent school governor taking on the state by arguing that the government was ''brainwashing'' pupils.

A High Court ruling last week that the Oscar-winning documentary would have to be screened with guidance notes to balance its claims was welcomed by climate change sceptics. The Observer has established that Dimmock's case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies.

Dimmock credited the little-known New Party with supporting him in the test case but did not elaborate on its involvement. The obscure Scotland-based party calls itself ''centre right'' and campaigns for lower taxes and expanding nuclear power. Records filed at the Electoral Commission show the New Party has received nearly all of its money - almost GBP1m between 2004 and 2006 - from Cloburn Quarry Limited, based in Lanarkshire.

The company's owner and chairman of the New Party, Robert Durward, is a long-time critic of environmentalists. With Mark Adams, a former private secretary to Tony Blair, he set up the Scientific Alliance, a not-for-profit body comprising scientists and non-scientists, which aims to challenge many of the claims about global warming.

GM Watch comment:
Martin Livermore, who heads the Scientific Alliance, is a PR consultant who formerly promoted GM crops for Dupont. And the Alliance's Advisory Forum has been stuffed with leading GM proponents since its inception, including Tony Trewavas, Mike Wilson, Philip Stott, Mark Cantley, and Vivian Moses, who is also Chair of the biotech industry backed PR body, CropGen. Moses, Trewavas and Cantley are still on the Forum - so much for their positioning themselves as champions of mainstream science.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8381

+ BBC MESSES UP AGAIN ON GORE STORY
Andy Rowell comments on the lamentable BBC coverage of the Gore story: [The Scientific Alliance] was one of the first ''corporate front groups'' to be set up in the UK. It has consistently tried to undermine climate science and networked with Exxon-funded groups in the US and UK. However rather than saying the Alliance undermines the debate on climate science, the BBC's presenter Shaun Ley described the Alliance as ''campaigning to improve the quality of debate about science''!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8381

+ LM-LINKED DURKIN'S FILM TO BE SENT TO SCHOOLS
Report from the Sunday Times: The tormentors of Al Gore, who last week won a legal victory against his film, An Inconvenient Truth, are to step up their battle by sending British secondary schools a documentary attacking the science of global warming. Channel 4's The Great Global Warming Swindle has become one of the most notorious documentaries of the year, attracting complaints from dozens of scientists and viewers.

The distribution of The Great Global Warming Swindle is being funded by Viscount Monckton, who is part of a counter-campaign to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. Monckton was one of the backers of Stewart Dimmock, the Kent lorry driver and school governor who took the government to court for sending copies of Gore's film to schools. The two are connected through the New Party, a right-wing group whose manifesto was written by Monckton and of which Dimmock is a member. ...

Monckton has also won support from the maker of The Great Global Warming Swindle. Martin Durkin, managing director of WAG TV, said he would be delighted for his film to go to schools. ...

Monckton has obtained funding from a right-wing Washington think tank, the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), to create a second film that will also be sent to schools. Entitled 'Apocalypse No', it parodies Gore, showing Monckton presenting a slide show in a vitriolic attack on climate change science. ...

George Monbiot, an environmentalist and critic of Monckton, said: 'He is trying to take on the global scientific establishment on the strength of a classics degree from Cambridge.'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article2652851.ece
For more on Durkin: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=39

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TAKE ACTION!
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+ SAY NO TO GM BEER
Send a letter to Anheuser-Busch protesting about their use of GM rice in Budweiser:
http://write-a-letter.greenpeace.org/315/fc68e5146383183d0573b8cdba7e648e

+ SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST KENYA'S WEAK BIOSAFETY BILL
Sign the petition protesting against this Bill at http://www.udongo.org/petition-page