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

Dear all,

I don't know many campaigners who are good at self-congratulation, but I hope we've all made an exception in the wake of Bayer's withdrawal from the UK. The first item in our HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK should inspire you.

This week was the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. It is an event which we in the West are often accused of forgetting, so to mark the occasion we've produced a special series of articles on a group of people who went further than forgetting - they actually denied the atrocities that took place in Rwanda. (See HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL.) One of these people is now in charge of the UK's Science Media Centre! Others in the group hide under a cloak of independence and "sound science" to put out pro-GM propaganda every bit as dishonest as the articles denying the genocide.

Good news at last from Brazil, where in spite of the betrayal of President Lula in allowing the temporary growing and selling of GM soy, the governor of the major soy-producing state is busy banning pesticides made by Monsanto and BASF on health grounds (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL). The pesticides under the gun include Roundup, used on GM soy.

Meanwhile, in India, while the government has just approved a fourth GM cotton, the state of Mizoram has declared itself organic and has refused its allocation of chemical fertiliser this year. Three other Indian states, Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya, are in the process of going wholly organic. The chief minister of a fifth, Uttaranchal, has vowed to keep his state GM-free and pursue organics vigorously, and the Madhya Pradesh government has identified 3,300 villages where only organic farming will now be practised. If one good thing has come out of humankind's disastrous experiment with GM, perhaps it is that, as Dr Johnson said of knowing you are going to be hanged next morning, it concentrates the mind wonderfully.

THERE'S LOTS OF GOOD STUFF IN THE LATEST WEEKLY WATCH SO DO READ DOWN TO THE BOTTOM.

Claire    [email protected]
www.ngin.org.uk / www.gmwatch.org

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL
SCARE OF THE WEEK
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
DONATIONS
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS

------------------------------------------------------------
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK
------------------------------------------------------------

+ GRATEFUL AND HUMBLE: REPLIES TO GM VICTORY IN UK
With the inspiring recent news from the UK (probably no GM commercialisation for the next five years) and Australia (four states have installed moratoria on GM plantings), messages of delight have been pouring in to GM WATCH. Here are two:

(i) TO GMWatch Humans, Jim Thomas & Sarah North
As a Tawo Seed Carrier of sacred plants, please accept my humble and grateful thank you for all your personal sacrifices. To quote the Mahatma, "this world has enough for everyone's need but not enough for one man's greed." Here in Turtle Island [Canada] we continue to resist being the guinea pigs of Monsanto and their ilk.  We need your prayers.
Love,
Lilia Firefly
Tawo Seed Carrier

 (ii) ...THANK YOU from me, personally to you for the incredible work you have done, for your courage and for not giving up. I cannot match most of you, except, perhaps, in the not giving up department. The world does not thank us very often for the work we do, so we have to thank each other.

I also want you to feel what it means to your life that sometimes we can actually WIN, not just fight the good fight because we know it's the right thing to do. Sometimes, you can win when you're pushing a door that is already starting to open, but nobody can say that that was the case here.

So, right now, get up from your computer, and, if you haven't already done it a lot, dance around the room, punch the air (or whatever you do), hug someone, MAKE SOME NOISE, claim some credit out loud!

GO ON, I really mean it, do it now.
[one of the first campaigners on GM]
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3161

+ ACRES OF GM CROPS WITHIN DECADE, SAY BAYER
A defiant Dr Julian Little is predicting that acres of GM oilseed rape will be growing in Cambridgeshire fields before the end of the decade. Dr Little, public and government affairs manager for Bayer CropScience, sounds undeterred by this week's announcement that his company is abandoning its GM maize plans for this country.

Dr Little said it was a case of the GM maize seed running past its shelf life, with new developments in seed technology superseding this variety. He said, "Bayer remains absolutely committed to GM and we are looking forward to the day when it is grown in the UK. We were disappointed to have to make the maize announcement because we had worked hard to keep the shelf life going as long as possible. However, we do expect GM oilseed rape to be harvested in the fields of Cambridgeshire before the end of the decade." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3170

+ "GM WILL NEVER BE GROWN IN BRITAIN"
According to an article in the Independent, ministers are prepared for GM crops never to be grown commercially in Britain after the strain approved for cultivation was withdrawn by Bayer, the company that developed it. The article claims ministers are determined not to compromise on strict conditions for growing the crops, which Bayer blamed for its decision not to proceed with the GM maize given the go-ahead by the government last month. Unless the controls are relaxed, Bayer says it will abandon the technology in Britain. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3167

+ CONSUMER OPPOSITION BEHIND BAYER DECISION?
An article by Sean Poulter in the Daily Mail says of Bayer's decision to withdraw its GM maize, "the biotech farming lobby viewed it as a disaster, setting back such cultivation many years. It was also a huge embarrassment for ministers, who have done all they could to approve the genetically modified maize. Bayer is believed to have abandoned its plans after realising that consumer opposition could make it impossible to find a market for the product." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3167