from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all:

Dr Fred Kirschenmann, the Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, is a notable critic of GMOs. He is also suddenly out of a job in a College of Agriculture that's been described as drawing "agribusiness cash the way a penned-up pig wallowing in its own waste draws flies." (see THE UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX)

We have many other notable news items this week, including the inevitable report that genetically engineering the world's entire flock of chickens will save us all from bird flu! (EUROPE)

Finally, don't miss LOBBYWATCH for some stunning greenwashing... and worse.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDUSTRIAL-UNIVERSITY COMPLEX
AUSTRALASIA
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
MIDDLE EAST
THE AMERICAS
NEW RESEARCH
LOBBYWATCH
ETHICS
NEW BOOK
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

------------------------------------------------------------
THE INDUSTRIAL-UNIVERSITY COMPLEX
------------------------------------------------------------

+ SUSTAINABLE AG CHAMPION KICKED UPSTAIRS
Fred Kirschenmann, a notable contributor to "The Future of Food" - the film that's increasingly reaching a mainstream audience in the U.S. with its troubling questions about food production and GMOs, is no longer the director of Iowa State University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Kirschenmann says his move from director to "distinguished fellow" came suddenly and without his own input.

"On Wednesday," says Kirshenmann, "I received a letter from the interim dean asking me to resign by Friday and decide by then if I would accept the position of distinguished fellow at the center." Kirschenmann wrote back telling her that, "I thought she was moving too fast, that there wouldn't be time for a smooth transition. She wrote back that it was a done deal - she had already named a new director."

This sudden purge at the top has called the Center's much-prized independence from industrial agriculture into question. Kirschenmann says the interim dean who forced him out has claimed the Leopold Center was neglecting "key stakeholders". But she has never clarified "who those stakeholders were." When asked if she might have been refering to agribusiness interests, Kirschenmann says simply, "You can draw your own conclusions."

Kirschenmann has consistently argued for the urgent need for agriculture to go forward "into a more intelligent, diversified farming system." GMOs, Kirschenmann has said, are "simply another tool to make the monoculture work a little longer" in the face of the increased pests and diseases that monocultures encourage. For Kirschenmann GMOs are at odds with a more intelligent style of farming.

The Leopold Center's research has thrown up unwelcome findings. Even before Kirschenmann became director, its survey of approximately 800 farmers in Iowa showed that while over half chose GM soybeans because they believed they produced higher yields, the actual data from their farms showed the exact opposite.

The study also showed that GM soybeans and corn provided no economic benefits to farmers. When the study was repeated using information from the year 2000, it showed the same results: GM seed did not help a farmer's bottom line.

Those findings were published in 2001. In May 2002 Iowa legislators approved the transfer away from the Center of $1 million worth of funding earmarked for its work helping to cripple the Center's ability to support new research.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5899

+ ROW OVER BLOCKED GM VIDEO AIRED
Media networks, businesspeople, and University of Manitoba (U of M) students and staff witnessed a debate on "Are Corporate Interests Jeopardizing Academic Freedoms?" The debate pitted the two makers of the controversial documentary "Seeds of Change" against two university administrators.

According to Stephane McLachlan, associate professor in the faculty of environment and co-producer of "Seeds of Change," private interests on campus have reduced academic freedom at the U of M, specifically in regards to the right of students to disseminate critical research. He claims that this is reflected by the three-year struggle he and Mauro have faced to release their publicly-funded documentary.

"It's controversial in the sense that... it was very critical of the biotech industry as experienced by farmers and other experts . . . There's no doubt in my mind that if the video had been pro-industry it would have been released three years ago," said McLachlan.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5899

------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM COMPANIES ACCUSED OF CONTAMINATING SEED
Greenpeace is accusing seed companies including Bayer of contaminating seed with GM material to force Australia to accept the technology. New tolerance levels have been set for canola seed, with GM tolerance levels set at 0.5 per cent for the next two seasons and 0.1 per cent after that.

Greenpeace spokesman John Hepburn says the decision lets biotech companies off the hook. "Contamination will continue to spread unless you put in strict controls and really push for zero contamination of seed."

Bayer CropScience has declined to comment on the Greenpeace allegations but says it welcomes the setting of a GM tolerance level.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5880

+ WA STILL AIMS TO BE GM-FREE
Western Australian Agriculture Minister Kim Chance says WA will still aim to be GM-free, despite supporting tolerance levels for GM material in non-GM canola. Mr Chance says the state can still legislate to make WA GM-free, but that probably will not happen for a few years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5880

+ GM DEAL SELLS OUT FARMERS
Greens Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council Ian Cohen says that agriculture ministers meeting in Tasmania have sold out farmers that wish to remain GM-free. "Organic farmers wanting to produce GE free canola products are in real trouble," Mr Cohen said. "They are going to have to undergo expensive testing procedures to ensure their crops have not been contaminated.

"The Governments should have been trying to contain the contamination by ensuring next year's seed stock was completely GE free. Instead the Federal and State Governments have legalized ongoing contamination. NSW Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald should be ashamed that he has sold out NSW farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5880

+ FARMERS CALL FOR COMPENSATION FOR GM CONTAMINATION
The Network of Concerned Farmers is insisting on compensation for any losses caused by acceptance of GM tolerance levels - and a complete ban on all trials grown by Bayer Cropscience until damages are paid.

"Bayer Cropscience must be made to pay all costs and losses caused by their negligence, not rewarded by allowing contamination without liability redress." said Geoffrey Carracher, Victorian NCF Spokesperson.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5880
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5895

+ GM-FREE "IMPRACTICAL, UNREALISTIC, UNACHIEVABLE"
Australian Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran says zero GM contamination is "impractical, unrealistic and unachievable".

The minister also claims, "Europe which is anti-GM accepts 0.9. and 0.5 %" contamination." But this isn't true, as Julie Newman, a farmer and vice president of the Western Australian Farmers Grains Committee, as well as the WA representative on the Grains Council of Australia's Seeds Subcommittee, has pointed out.

McGauran is a minister in Australia's *federal* government, which is permanently in pursuit of a bilateral trade deal with Bush and co, and pushes GM. By contrast, all the Oz states, bar one which doesn't grow canola, have looked to the interests of their farmers and consumers and placed moratoria on GM food/feed crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5893

+ GM CANOLA CONTAMINATION TRACED TO TASMANIA TRIAL
The GM contamination of Australia's canola crops has been traced to a Tasmanian trial in the late 1990s. The state was contracted by the Victorian Government to grow a variety of canola in 1999 and recent tests show that while the seeds were GM-free when sent across Bass Strait, return shipments were contaminated.

The Tasmanian Government has restated its commitment to a ban on GM foods, despite voting for a more relaxed national policy on the issue.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5892

See why GM WATCH gave a PANTS ON FIRE award to arch-contaminators Aventis (now taken over by Bayer) in 2000 who like the other gene giants have caused mayhem with their trials in Australia and elsewhere:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5894

------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
------------------------------------------------------------

+ FARMERS CONCERNED OVER D&PL'S TERMINATOR PATENT
Indian farmers have expressed concern over the patent rights accorded to Delta & Pine Land in Europe and US over its terminator technology. They have expressed fears that the company, which has recently declared that it would enter the country's farm sector, may bring in the terminator technology.

The executive chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj, Dr Krishan Bir Chaudhary, said: "The government should take immediate steps to ban terminator technology in the country. It should immediately review the activities and intentions of Delta & Pine Land. The company should not be allowed any field trials of terminator seeds."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5882

+ OVERVIEW OF BT COTTON FAILURE IN INDIA
"Bt cotton has failed huge numbers of farmers, many of whom have been driven to suicide as a result of the heavy debts incurred from growing GM crops." Useful summary with links.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5884

+ PHILIPPINES FACES HURDLES IN GM RICE PUSH
A plan by the Philippines to become one of the first nations to introduce GM rice may be delayed by several years, despite an aggressive start. The country is unlikely to commercialise a transgenic variety, resistant to bacterial leaf blight disease, on which it conducted field trials this year, said Leo Sebastian, executive director of the state-funded Philippine Rice Research Institute.

"Unfortunately, the variety in which the transgenic gene was placed is not very popular among the country's consumers, farmers and millers," Sebastian told Reuters in an interview, referring to the IR-72 variety.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5897

------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE
------------------------------------------------------------

+ EU COMMISSION FORCES THROUGH ANOTHER GM MAIZE
The unelected EU Commission has forced approval of GM maize 1507, jointly made by DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen Seeds. The member states had failed to come to an agreement on the maize and in such a situation the Commission has the power to overrule them.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5901

+ UK JUDGE THREATENS PEACEFUL PROTESTORS WITH ASBOs, ELECTRONIC TAGGING
Five people were found guilty of aggravated trespass after they blockaded a Sainsbury's distribution centre in attempt to protect the public from the supermarkets GM fed milk. Four of the five were first time offenders, and yet they were given 50 hours community service, and ordered to pay GBP150 costs each. The punishment is regarded as being extreme and disproportionate.

The verdict came as a surprise as there appeared to be a U-turn in the judge's attitude between the trial and the verdict. At the trial, he said, "if a hundred people were asked more than 90 would say that this information [that the cows from which Sainsbury's gets its milk are GM-fed] should be in the public domain". He then retired for three weeks to consider his verdict.

When delivering his verdict, the judge was apparently eager to be seen to apply the harshest criminal guidelines. He stated that he was considering imposing a curfew on all the defendants (which would have involved electronic tagging), and had also contemplated applying Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to those involved in addition to community service.

Liz Snook, one of the defendants, said, "We know that a Sainsbury's security person was present throughout our trial, and that the judge's demeanour changed enormously in the interval between the trial and the verdict. Sainsbury's have already invested a huge amount of money and influence in trying to thwart protests against them, and these sort of sentences are very much in keeping with the governments new 'anti terror' legislation which seeks to crush all kinds of protest. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the judge was politely nobbled. Either that, or he was having an incredibly bad day."

Donations towards the group's costs will be gratefully received. Please call 079291 08792 for more information.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5898

+ GM CHICKENS TO BEAT AVIAN FLU
The Times' science correspondent, Mark Henderson, is trumpeting British scientists' plans to beat bird flu by replacing the world's entire stock of chickens with ones genetically modified to resist the virus.

According to the leader of the team, which includes scientists att he Roslin Institute where Dolly was cloned, "Once we have regulatory approval, we believe it will only take between four and five years to breed enough chickens to replace the entire world population".

This GM-chickens-to-save-the-world story is classic Mark Henderson. Here are some of his other upbeat stories:
*GM cotton boon for Indian farmers
*GM grass to put club golfers on par with the best
*Stupidity just another disease to cure, says DNA pioneer
*GM crops could revive endangered wildlife
*Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'
etc. etc.

What's really needed is a way of replacing the world's stock of idiotic science stories with ones written by science correspondents more resistant to corporate hype!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5887

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFRICA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GOVERNMENT SLAPS TEMPORARY FREEZE ON GM IMPORTS TO SA
A temporary moratorium on all applications to import GM commodities has been ordered by the South African government at its most recent executive council meeting.

A study by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to assess the implications of GM imports on SA's trade has also been commissioned. "For the first time, government is demonstrating the will to govern on this issue, as opposed to being led by partisan biotech industry interests," said Glenn Ashton of Safeage.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5883
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5881

+ GM-FOR-AFRICA PROJECT "HOMEGROWN" AT DES MOINES, IOWA
It's interesting how the Bill Gates-backed GM sorghum project is being spun for different audiences.

According to Florence Wambugu, who heads the CropLife International-backed 'Africa Harvest' lobby group that's fronting the project, this is "absolutely an African driven project" and nothing to do with "foreign companies introducing technology that may not be appropriate to Africa".

That's what Wambugu told Reuters in Johannesburg. But in the US, the Des Moines Register reports that the project is getting off the ground with not only the help of a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but with the help of the DuPont-owned subsidiary Pioneer's "crop seed expertise and vast plant genetic resources".

And it doesn't stop there. Pioneer, the Register reports, is providing sorghum germplasm, intellectual property rights "and the expertise to make sorghum more nutritional - a contribution valued at $4.8 million". The article also says that Pioneer is training "Africans at its worldwide research headquarters in Johnston as part of the effort".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5886

+ INITIATIVES FOR AFRICA "HOMEGROWN" AT SYNGENTA
Another article has appeared, this time in CBI (Council for Biotechnology Information) News, celebrating "Homegrown initiatives" which are "empowering African farmers, improving yields".

Among these "local", "grassroots", "homegrown" biotechnology initiatives is one in Kenya, involving fighting stem borers with Bt corn. In describing the initiative, the article makes reference to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and "Kenyan scientists" but makes absolutely no mention of the real initiator and driving force behind this "empowering" project: the Syngenta Foundation. The Foundation, as its name suggests, is the creature of the world's largest biotech company. Syngenta directors occupy 3 of the 5 seats on the Foundation's board, with the Chairman of the Board of Syngenta acting as the Foundation's President.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5889

+ GM MAIZE REJECTED BY SWAZIS
In Swaziland, a majority of hunger-stricken people are rejecting GM maize food aid because of health risks and questions are being asked in parliament about why it continues to be dumped on them.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5888

------------------------------------------------------------
MIDDLE EAST
------------------------------------------------------------

+ ORDER 81 MAKES PROJECT CENSORED'S TOP TEN
Order 81, the restrictive seeds law that the US imposed on Iraq, has made Project Censored's list of the ten biggest stories that the mainstream media ignored over the past year.

Order 81 sets criteria for the patenting of seeds that can only be met by multinational companies like Monsanto or Syngenta, and it grants the patent holder exclusive rights over every aspect of all plant products yielded by those seeds. The new scheme may eventually lead to Iraqi farmers having to purchase their seeds rather than using seeds saved from their own crops or bought at the local market.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5904

------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ ROUNDUP READY CANOLA IS BACK IN SCHMEISER'S FIELD
Percy Schmeiser, the farmer found guilty in 1998 of having Monsanto's genetics on his land after Roundup Ready canola was found to have contaminated his crop, has again discovered RR canola growing in his field. He contacted Monsanto in September to ask them to remove the 'volunteer' plants.

The company offered to hand pick the offending plants from the field once Schmeiser signed a legal release that all farmers with unexpected volunteer plants are required to sign. The document forever releases Monsanto from any lawsuits associated with their products and forbids the grower from disclosing the terms of the settlement.

For Schmeiser, that was too much. He said, "I flatly refused to sign any release that would take my freedom of speech or my rights away."

Schmeiser has removed the plants himself, some of which were spreading seeds onto his field. He filled a half-ton truck with his first clearing attempt. In a letter to the company, he estimated that damage to his farmland this year and the next is expected to exceed $50,000. He said he will send an invoice to Monsanto for the cleanup costs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5900

+ GMO BAN ON SONOMA COUNTY BALLOT
A hot-button issue on the Nov. 8 ballot in Sonoma County is attracting an anticipated record amount of funding ($500,000). It's Measure Q, a proposed 10-year ban on growing, selling and distributing GMOs in Sonoma County. Nearby Mendocino and Marin counties have already passed similar measures.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5896

+ SLO COUNTY'S UNHEALTHY TASK FORCE
Last year a similar initiative - Measure Q - aimed at keeping GM crops from being grown in SLO County, was defeated but many SLO County citizens remained concerned about the impacts of GM crops. The Board of Supervisors requested the County's Health Department to form a task force to to investigate and gather information.

In a letter to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, Teresa Campbell, a co-coordinator of the campaign for Measure Q, takes apart the appointments to this task force:

"All applicants supporting Q were rejected, including two health commissioners. Yet of the five public citizens chosen for the task force, three were very active in the No on Q campaign.

The "Cal Poly crop scientist who's familiar with bioengineering" signed the ballot argument against Measure Q and sold genetically engineered corn at the SLO Farmers Market during the election.

The "farmer who sells his produce at farmers market" has only recently become a farmer. Previously, his professional life involved 25 years of research on GE crops.

The "retired doctor who also practiced dentistry" lobbied The Tribune editorial board to oppose Measure Q."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5896

------------------------------------------------------------
NEW RESEARCH
------------------------------------------------------------

+ USEFUL SUMMARY OF RUSSIAN GM SOY FEEDING TRIAL
Jeffrey Smith summarises this important study (virtually ignored by the media) and places it in the context of past GM food studies with his usual clarity:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5890

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ HIJACKING CORPORATE REFORM
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a group of mainly small businesses, was founded in 1991 to counter the voices of the multinationals in the public policy arena. But it was quickly hijacked by big business interests, with Monsanto leading the charge. The topics the group was meant to address - such as fair wages, government regulation and redress for corporate crimes - are now never mentioned. These days the likes of Monsanto, ExxonMobil, Chiquita and Big Tobacco call the tune.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5905

+ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY UNDER ATTACK
Since mid-2002, an assault on the concept of CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility - has been growing, with over a hundred articles or opinion pieces criticizing corporate responsibility - the bulk of them published since summer of 2004. Many of the key attackers are well known to GM WATCH readers.

Among them are
***v-Fluence, the firm of Jay Byrne, Monsanto's former Director of Public Affairs who's widely seen as having masterminded the notorious Monsanto-Bivings "fake persuaders" PR campaign.
***the Competitive Enterprise Institute. CEI takes money from Monsanto and co-founded CS Prakash's AgBioWorld, which played a key part in Monsanto's "fake persuaders" campaign.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5905

+ JEFF WILSON'S GREENWASH KITCHEN
Jeff Wilson is fronting the "Green Kitchen" initiative at Toronto's Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Nov 4-13. Wilson aims to show some of the "earth-friendly" directions that "seeds can now take with the benefit of biotechnology" under the slogan: "Feels good, tastes great - biotech seed key to greener future". "The Green Kitchen demonstrates how biotech crops are providing safe, healthy foods and environmentally friendly consumer products from annually renewable agricultural resources."

Wilson is described as "a farmer from Birkbank Farms". Birkbank, however, is no ordinary farm and Wilson no ordinary farmer. Both are part of the Food Safety Network headed by Doug Powell and backed by the likes of Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred, ConAgra, McDonald's, Nestle, Ag-West Biotech, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., Southern Crop Protection Association and the (biotech industry-funded) Council for Biotechnology Information which, along with Dow, is also backing The Green Kitchen.

Wilson has previously been involved in research claiming to show that shoppers given a choice between bins of GM and non-GM corn overwhelmingly voted "with their wallets" by selecting the GM corn. A photo taken at Wilson's farm market reveals the reason why. A sign above the non-GM sweet corn bin reads "Would You Eat Wormy Sweet Corn?" and it's followed by a long list of chemicals applied. In contrast, the Bt-sweet corn bin was labelled: "Here's What Went into Producing Quality Sweet Corn", followed by a list of fertilizers, with the fact that it was Bt corn only shown on a separate sign.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5906

+ BILL MOYERS ON CORPORATE CAPTURE OF REGULATORS UNDER BUSH
"President Bush has turned the agencies charged with environmental protection over to people who don't believe in it. To run the Interior Department he chose a long-time defender of polluters... To run the Forest Service he chose a timber industry lobbyist. To oversee our public lands he named a mining industry lobbyist who believes public lands are unconstitutional. To run the Superfund he chose a woman who made a living advising corporate polluters how to evade the Superfund. And in the White House office of environmental policy the President placed a lobbyist from the American Petroleum Institute whose mission was to make sure the government's scientific reports on global warming didn't contradict the party line and the interest of oil companies. Everywhere you look, the foxes own the chicken coop." Read Bill Moyers' speech to the Society of Environmental Journalists Convention on the Politics of Denial in full at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5905

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ETHICS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GENETICIST WARNS AND CHALLENGES STUDENTS
Animal geneticist John Hodges has issued a warning to University of Alberta agriculture students: incorporate ethical standards into practice or risk a bleak future.

Hodges warned that biotechnology, combined with capitalistic economics, is reshaping crops and livestock in ways that must inevitably affect people. Already, 45% of chicken breeds are at risk of extinction, as intensification of production zeroes in on the cheapest inputs for the highest outputs.

As well, 43% of horse breeds, 23% of pig breeds, and 23% of cattle breeds are all at risk, said Hodges. The result is a serious loss of biodiversity. "This intensification of production is leading us into crisis," Hodges warned.

He offered students the challenge of the future. "You're going to have to do some fresh thinking. Society is searching for its new moral and spiritual values." High-production agriculture is already contributing to obesity and pollution. In the future, sustainability will become a vital issue, he suggested.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5885

------------------------------------------------------------
NEW BOOK
------------------------------------------------------------

+ BIOWARFARE: WHO POSES THE THREAT?: BIOWARFARE AND TERRORISM
by Francis A. Boyle
This book outlines how and why the US government initiated, sustained and then dramatically expanded an illegal biological arms buildup. Most significantly, US expert Francis A. Boyle reveals how the new billion-dollar US Chemical and Biological Defense Program has been re-orientated to accord with the Neo-Conservative pre-emptive strike agenda-this time by biological and chemical warfare.

Linking US biowarfare development to the October 2001 anthrax attack on Congress - the most significant political attack on the constitutional functioning of democracy in the United States in recent history - Boyle sheds new light on the motives for the attack, the media black hole of silence into which it has fallen, and why the FBI may never apprehend the perpetrators of this seminal political crime of the 21st century.

Scary snippet:
"THE US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons." David Hambling, New Science, September 24, 2005
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5891

------------------------------------------------------------
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------

+ SUPPORT POLISH FARMER FACING PRISON
Please support the campaign of ICPPC - the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, to obtain a pardon from prison for Marian Zagorny, an activist farmer. Zagorny was was sentenced on 21 May 2003 for protesting the illegal smuggling of GMOS into Poland. This suspended his previous pardon of a one year prison sentence from June 2000. Over the past five years, Marian Zagorny has publicly opposed the import of GM grain.

The impact of illegal imports to Poland on small scale farmers is huge. Their livelihoods are already threatened, as rich European companies flock to buy up fertile agricultural land.

E-mail the President of Poland, the court and the Minister of Justice in one easy action: http://www.foei.org/cyberaction/zagorny.php

------------------------------------------------------------
ORGANICS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ ORGANIC AG CAN FEED THE WORLD - GMOs CAN'T
An excellent paper by the Organic Federation of Australia gives a roundup of research showing that organic agriculture can deliver sustainable high yields at low cost and increase the standard of living of communities. It makes a point that is oddly absent from propaganda pushing GMOs as a solution to hunger: "It costs tens of millions of dollars and takes many years to develop one genetically modified plant variety."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5907