from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Yet again, inspiring news comes from India, this time in the form of a public interest lawsuit to stop the release of GMOs (ASIA).

We have an update on the catalogue of failure, death and illness that is MEDICAL BIOTECH. And a revealing report from America that completely squashes the old biotech claim that growing pharma drugs in open fields of food crops is cheaper than producing them in the traditional way, in contained conditions (THE AMERICAS).

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

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CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
MEDICAL BIOTECH
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GM CROP USE "LIMITED" IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - UN REPORT
In contrast with the usual industry hype, the use of GM crops by developing nations is very problematic and has been limited, says a recent UN report. The US accounted for a hefty 59 percent of of GM agriculture in 2004. Only 16 other countries grew GM crops, led by Argentina (20 percent of the total area), Canada and Brazil (6 percent each), China (5 percent), Paraguay (2 percent), and India and South Africa (a mere 1 percent each), according to the report.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5227

+ DISPELLING MYTHS?
In 2003, the American Soybean Association (ASA) published "Correcting the Myths" to counter the "misunderstandings, half-truths and sometimes blatant falsehoods" spread by the critics of "ag biotech".

Two years later, according to ASA's Technical Issues Director, Kimball Nill, "we realise our document needs to be updated - because the facts just got better." The result is a new ASA report, "Dispelling the myths".

According to Nill, "We wanted to add the rational, independent farmers' voice to the world's biotech debate."

Independent? Prior to joining the ASA, Nill served "in several positions supporting Monsanto Company's venture capital and biotechnology R&D efforts". His current employer, ASA, has also enjoyed a close relationship with Monsanto, receiving a significant part of its multi-million dollar budget from the likes of Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, BASF, and others.

Nill also works for the Agriculture Commodity Coalition which is funded by the biotech-industry backed Council for Biotech Information (CBI) to run a coordinated pro-GM public information campaign under the slogan "Farmers for the benefits of Biotechnology".

Part of Nill's ASA role is to "proactively" deal with "threats & opportunities" arising from "emerging international technology related issues that could impact U.S. soybean exports".

Being backed by the bitechs to protect American farm exports gives a whole new meaning to adding the "independent farmers' voice to the world's biotech debate"!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5231

Meanwhile the American Corn Growers Association is reporting how biotech arrogance is losing U.S. farmers important exports. (see THE AMERICAS)

+ BLAIR APPOINTS BIOTECH LOBBYIST TO GOVT
British prime minister Tony Blair has just placed in the Ministry of Defence the man who has been tipped to be Lord Sainsbury's successor as science minister - Lord Drayson, the former head of the BioIndustry Association - motto: 'Promoting UK Biotechnology'. Like Sainsbury, Drayson is a major donor to the Labour Party and has been given a peerage by Blair in highly controversial circumstances.

Drayson made a substantial donation to Labour while the Ministry of Defence was deciding who should be awarded a smallpox vaccine contract. Drayson gave a further donation of half a million pounds to Labour just six weeks after the PM made him Lord Drayson. The Blair government awarded Drayson's company the GBP32million smallpox vaccine contract without any competition.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5220

The Guardian comments on the Drayson appointment: "... one's eye is caught by the appointment of Lord Smallpox, aka Paul Drayson, whose enoblement last year was swiftly followed by a cheque to party funds of half a million pounds. The noble lord is now a minister at the Ministry of Defence. It may be unkind to Lord Drayson to suggest that he effectively purchased a seat in parliament, but if the same thing happened in an African kleptocracy we might find it altogether less amusing."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5224

+ GM PHARM FIRM CLAIMS GREENPEACE SUPPORT
Eric Murphy, chief scientist with Agragen, a North-Dakota based company that wants to genetically engineer flax, has been claiming that Greenpeace favours GM plant-made pharmaceutical production of a form of omega-3 fatty acid. It's not the first time that desperate GM companies have made spurious claims about Greenpeace support. False stories have been circulated by the biotech lobby that Greenpeace dropped its opposition to GM crops in the case of Golden Rice. Murphy also claims that the European public is becoming more relaxed about pharma plant production!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5215

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ASIA
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+ IMPORTANT LEGAL CHALLENGE LAUNCHED IN INDIA
A new legal challenge to the release of GMOs was launched in India on 12 May with a press conference attended by three TV channels and other media organisations. The challenge calls for a moratorium on the release of all GMOs into the Indian environment and for biosafety testing.

The legal action looks set to throw up some extremely interesting material and issues that are as important to the rest of the world as they are to India.

EXCERPT from the press release:
Dr Arpad Pusztai... in a prepared statement to the Supreme Court says: "No comprehensive health and environmental risk assessment has been carried out with Bt cotton and even less published in peer-reviewed science journals. With a potentially toxic crop [which goes into the food chain via animal feed] whose anti-nutrients, (toxins such as gossypol, cyclopropenoid fatty acids or the potent carcinogenic aflatoxins, are well-known to accumulate in the subcutaneous fatty tissues of consumers... In the absence of conclusive evidence for the lack of toxicity, responsible GM regulatory authorities must prevent the cultivation, commercialisation and food use of GM cotton and its products".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5230

+ SEIZE ILLEGAL GM COTTON SEEDS - NGOs
Farmers' organisations and NGOs have urged India's regulatory body to direct state governments to seize stocks of illegal and unapproved varieties of Bt cotton seeds before the sowing season.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5217

+ WHY SEEDS BILL IS DISASTER FOR INDIA'S FARMERS
Critics say that India's proposed Seeds Bill will destroy farmers' livelihoods. "It is a Bill drafted under pressure from seed manufacturing MNCs like Monsanto. It has the potential to spell doom for Indian agriculture. Most of the seed varieties used in Indian agriculture today are farmer-produced. If farmers are not allowed to save and sell their own seeds, there can't be any agriculture here. The only aim of this Bill is to force the farmer to buy seeds from the market," says Vandana Shiva of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5214

+ URGE