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THE WEEKLY WATCH number 76 (10/6/2004)

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all,

Prepare to be outraged, gratified and amused this week.

Outrage is justified by news that Monsanto is apparently threatening Mexican farmers with jail; and by the horrifying story of an American town poisoned by the company's toxic PCBs (OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK).

Gratification is provided by an article in, of all places, the journal Nature Biotechnology, which confirms what we GM-sceptics have been saying for years - that for many of the pro-GM brigade, biotech is not a science but a religion.

And an American economist has come up with a superb description of the idea (widely held by politicians) that attracting biotech into your backyard brings prosperity: "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable. This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials." (BIOTECH: BAD-IDEA VIRUS AND NEW RELIGION)

Amusement of the exasperated kind is to be had in our FOOD SAFETY section. Here, Dr Arpad Pusztai exposes, in his usual patient, reasoned and understated way, the mind-boggling "ignorance" of Dr Ian Gibson, chair of Britain's all-party Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee. Gibson told MPs in the House of Commons that epidemiological studies have been carried out that show GM food to be safe. Is he a liar, a biotech zealot or infected by the bad-idea virus? Which ever it is, like so many GM supporters, he cannot tell the difference between science and wishful thinking.

If you are depressed rather than amused at the spectacle of Gibson's gormlessness, a visit to our JOKE OF THE WEEK might lift your spirits.
Claire    [email protected]
www.ngin.org.uk / www.gmwatch.org

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CONTENTS
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OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
BIOTECH: BAD-IDEA VIRUS AND NEW RELIGION
BIO CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO
FOCUS ON AFRICA
FOOD SAFETY
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
NEW RESEARCH
JOKE OF THE WEEK
DONATIONS
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK
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+ MONSANTO THREATENS FARMERS WITH JAIL - YOUR HELP NEEDED
Monsanto is not hanging about in seeking to capitalise on the recent Canadian decision on the Percy Schmeiser case. (The court upheld Monsanto's patent on its GM canola, finding Percy guilty of infringing its patent when his canola crop was found to be contaminated with Monsanto's genes.) Monsanto is said to have moved aggressively to globalise the benefits of the decision they managed to expensively wring out of 5 of the 9 judges of the Canadian Supreme Court.

We've been hearing from the BIO-devastation gathering in San Francisco that a page-size ad has been doing the rounds which is said to have been placed by Monsanto in Chiapas, Mexico. It is said this ad was repeatedly run in local newspapers in Chiapas directly in the wake of the Canadian decision.

The ad is addressed to "Amigo Agricultor" (Dear Farmer Friend). In the accompanying message Monsanto reminds its friends, the farmers, that planting its seeds (or seeds carrying its patented genes) without its permission is a federal crime under the law of Mexico, and - they apparently say - can be punished by nine years in jail!

Assuming this information to be correct, we would like to know how widespread this campaign is. If you are in an agricultural area, anywhere in the world, and are aware of anything similar having appeared in the local press, we would be interested to hear from you.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3711

+ SCHNEWS COMMENTS ON SCHMEISER RULING AND MONSANTO'S THREATENING AD
This strange twist of the law which persecutes people for having their own property polluted goes back to a Canadian Federal law passed in 1991 which ruled that patents have precedence over and above a farmer's rights. The ruling means that if a farmer has their crops contaminated with GM seeds then they could be potentially liable to pay Monsanto for "benefiting" from their technology. Terry Boehm, Vice-President of the Canadian National Farmers Union said "It moves us further along the path where corporations will control seed and farmers will lose the right to save seed."
...
This pleasant company are now turning its attention to weaker opponents, taking out newspaper ads in Mexico warning peasants that if they are found using GM seed illegally, they risk fines and even prison! Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Mexico says, "This will come as shocking news to indigenous farmers in Mexico, whose maize fields have been contaminated with DNA from genetically modified plants, and to farmers everywhere who are fighting to prevent genetically modified organisms from trespassing in their fields."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3700

+ "BEYOND ALL DECENCY": HOW MONSANTO POISONED A TOWN
Even if you think you know the story of Anniston, the town in Alabama that Monsanto poisoned with its toxic PCBs, do read the CBS news report at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3698

Excerpts:
CBS host: Imagine a place so saturated with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, that it's in the dirt people walk on, in the air that they breathe, even in the blood that pumps through their veins. The 24,000 people in Anniston, Alabama, don't have to imagine this; many of them are living it. In fact, they've been living it for decades; they just didn't know it. The company responsible didn't tell them, and neither did the US Environmental Protection Agency...
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Today, parts of Anniston are so contaminated that residents have been told not to grow vegetables in the soil, kick up dirt, eat food, chew gum or smoke cigarettes while working in their own yards.
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The people who live in west Anniston, the area closest to the plant, have some of the highest PCB levels in the world. Anything above one and a half parts per billion is considered unusual.... All of them have major health problems, from diabetes to cancer, and they're convinced it's because of the PCBs.

CBS host to Monsanto man: The jury in Alabama found you guilty, if that's the right word, of behaviour "so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society." I've never heard a - a - a finding like that before.
...
CBS host: [Ex-Senator Donald] Stewart uncovered close to a million pages of company documents that show Monsanto knew PCBs were a problem as early as 1938, when scientists hired by the company reported that rats exposed to the chemicals developed liver damage. By the 1950s, Monsanto was urging its own workers to wear proper protective clothing and respiratory equipment when handling PCBs. Many of the documents were marked 'confidential: Read and

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