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

Dear all:

Are EU 'regulators', and others worldwide, taking a "don't look, don't see" attitude to Syngenta's unauthorized GM maize Bt10, which has contaminated the food supply? See our CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST and decide for yourself.

One place integrity is alive and kicking is Vermont where senators, angry at bully-boy threats from the biotech industry, have voted 26-1 to approve the new GM liability bill, which would place the liability for contamination firmly on the GM seed companies. (THE AMERICAS)

Finally, watch out for the study just published by a University of Pittsburgh researcher suggesting that Roundup, the herbicide most commonly used on GM crops, is extremely lethal to amphibians and may be responsible for their global decline. This follows on from other recent research suggesting the active ingredient in Roundup could have toxic effects for humans. (NEW RESEARCH)

Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST
LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
NEW RESEARCH
DON'T MISS...
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

------------------------------------------------------------
CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST
------------------------------------------------------------

*Between 2001 and 2004, Syngenta produced and distributed an unapproved GM corn [maize], called Bt10, and sold it as an approved corn, Bt11*

+ JAPANESE DEMAND FOR US CORN SLOWS
Some Japanese buyers have already halted imports of US corn to avoid importing problematic cargoes contaminated by Bt10, traders said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5075

+ JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA TRYING TO TAKE STEPS AGAINST CONTAMINATED US IMPORTS
The biggest importers of sweetcorn from the US, Japan and South Korea, both appear to be trying to take steps to shut off maize supplies contaminated by Syngenta's illegal unapproved Bt10 maize at the ports.

The Japanese government has said that if inspections "discover contaminated cargoes, the ministry will order importers to destroy them or ship them back to the United States." But the government also says Japanese ports would only be able to "start testing samples of corn cargoes from the United States after the ministry obtained the necessary data from Syngenta to detect Bt10."

+ SYNGENTA NOT MAKING INFORMATION AVAILABLE
It's clear that Syngenta is delaying the release of full information on Bt10, as a damage limitation exercise.

An obvious example is the way in which Syngenta initially maintained that Bt10 and Bt11 were more or less identical without disclosing that Bt10, unlike Bt11, contained a gene for Ampicillin resistance.

Ampicillin is a broad spectrum antibiotic which has the ability to kill a wide range of bacterial infections in the body, including infections of the respiratory tract, the ear, and the urinary system, as well as salmonella infections and gonorrhoea. It is still widely used.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5073

+ SYNGENTA HAS DONE THIS BEFORE
This is not the first time that Syngenta has been reluctant to cooperate in a GM fiasco arising from its negligence. In 2000 5.6 tonnes of GM contaiminated maize seed, supplied by Syngenta, was illegally shipped to New Zealand and then planted as non-GM seed. There were subsequent allegations that the New Zealand government had been involved in a deliberate cover up, but a parliamentary committee of enquiry could never establish the truth of what had happened because, "the seed exporter, Syngenta, refused to allow the committee to talk to the Genescan laboratory which carried out the testing that identified the contamination."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3344

+ Bt 10 TESTING ALREADY AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE
There is concern that the European Commission, Britain's Food Standards Agency and others, are deliberately turning a blind eye to Syngenta's illegality.

The EU's Health and Consumer protection Spokesman Philip Tod has claimed they can't detect Bt10 "because it is not an authorised product," but it is not clear that it's necessary for the EU to continue to wait for the necessary data to come from Syngenta in order to detect Bt10.

The longest-established GM detection firm, Genetic ID, says detection of Bt10 is possible immediately: "Contrary to statements by the EU Commission, as reported in some media reports over the past few days, the detection of Bt10 maize as well as the distinction from Bt11 is possible immediately."

Testing for Bt10 is also widely available, including both in the EU and in Japan and South Korea, "Genetic ID offers its test for Bt10 through its laboratories in Germany, the US, and Japan, as well as through Genetic ID's Global Laboratory Alliance members in Brazil, Britain, Italy, China, Singapore, Taiwan, India, South Korea and, again, the US."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5073

+ AUTHORITIES SLAMMED FOR INCOMPETENCE AND COMPLACENCY
The official response within the UK and Europe to the GM maize scandal has been "incompetent and complacent", according to GM Free Cymru. The group also claims that Europe's GM regulatory system, promoted as being the most rigorous and robust in the world, is actually a shambles.

It is more than ten days since the world was alerted to the "accidental release" onto the world food market of GM maize contaminated with an unauthorized and untested Syngenta variety known as Bt10. The story was kept under wraps for almost four months by the US authorities and Syngenta, and when Nature reported the contamination incident on 22 March there was a carefully coordinated "damage limitation campaign" involving statements to the press which were extremely economical with the truth.

In the UK, DEFRA put out a statement on 23 March which was evasive and dishonest. More seriously, it contained lies which have still not been officially admitted or corrected.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5073

+ SCIENTISTS RUBBISH OFFICIAL CLAIMS
Official claims that illegal GM maize accidentally grown in the US for the past 4 years is "safe" are being challenged by independent scientists. The scientists have backed consumer-group concerns that testing and monitoring of 'Bt10' maize-accidentally grown and marketed as 'Bt11' is inadequate and have called for publication of the data that supposedly shows the proteins from the plants to be 'identical'.

The UK-based Institute of Science in Society has issued a detailed report on the Bt 10 problem which calls into question claims made by officials.
Read the report at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5069

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

+ TAVERNE BLASTED - "A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE AND A LOT OF BOMBAST ARE DANGEROUS"
Real scientist Margaret Cook demolishes pseudo-scientist and GM lobbyist Lord Dick Taverne's new book, The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism, in a scathing and brilliant review in the Guardian, Cook takes Taverne to task for the hectoring and irksome dogma of his writing.

EXCERPT:
In spite of his stated commitment to evidence-based science, much of his discussion is rant rather than reason.

There are regrettably a number of howlers. He attributes our health and longevity to modern medicine, whereas it owes much more to public health measures, sanitation, clean water, housing, diet. [GM WATCH comment: Here