from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

A gruesome report has emerged from China, where biotech companies are providing the cosmetics industry with skins of executed prisoners for manufacture of the collagen that Western women are fond of having injected into their lips (ASIA).

China has begun a practice of naming and shaming scientists found guilty of misconduct, though conspicuously absent from the blacklist is the man that the Chinese press has accused of systematically contaminating the Chinese rice supply with a GM rice he developed (ASIA).

Don't miss Dr Mae-Wan Ho's comprehensive roundup of research showing the problems found with Bt crops worldwide (RESEARCH).

Oh, and you might enjoy the US's advisor to Codex's assessment of the current state of the GM revolution:

"agbiotech already is moribund in the US (and international) public sector, little better in industry, and dead and buried in the developing world."

His solution? The United States should cut off funding and all other assistance to any country or agency (from the UN down) that dares to place any regulatory controls on GMOs. (LOBBYWATCH)

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

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CONTENTS
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THE AMERICAS
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
EUROPE
AFRICA
MIDDLE EAST
RESEARCH
OIL AND SUSTAINABILITY
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

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THE AMERICAS
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+ CORRUPTING AMERICA'S HEARTLAND
Monsanto's attempt to corrupt US Public Broadcasting and greenwash biotech and industrial agriculture by sponsoring an agricultural TV programme, America's Heartland, is turning into a significant issue.

It follows the controversy over the past year about Republicans trying to take over public broadcasting, which is one of the last bastions of non-corporate-controlled US media.

The director of programme marketing for the makers of the Monsanto-backed PBS series (KVIE-TV in Sacramento CA), Jim O'Donnell, is trying to play up the fact that no one outside of the programme makers has actually seen America's Heartland.

"I'm surprised at the criticism," says O'Donnell. "Nobody's seen the show... I'm not sure how anybody who has any opinion is basing that in fact."

But Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman, a Senior Scientist at the Center for Food Safety, has seen a precursor series to America's Heartland, called California Heartland, that the producers said accurately reflects the content of the new national series, and he reports that it is extremely one-sided.

O'Donnell has also apparently been telling complainers who call KVIE that none of the critics want to meet with him. We hear that requests to meet with O'Donnell have actually been ignored!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5776

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ASIA
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+ WORKING MIRACLES IN NEPAL'S NON-GM RICE FIELDS
SciDev.net carries an article expressing amazement at the bumper rice harvests being obtained in Nepal and other countries using local, non-GM varieties and no chemicals. Farmers are obtaining harvests of double or triple the usual size using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method, which uses less water and seed.

The pro-corporate International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is, predictably, unimpressed, claiming SRI showed no advantages over conventional methods in its trials.

One of the interesting aspects of this article is the nature of the surprise about the high yields obtained: "It sounds too good to be true. After all, this is not a high-yielding variety of genetically modified rice but the normal local variety, mansuli."

The joke is that there have been no GM crops successfully engineered for increased yield - just questionable claims of indirect yield gains plus consistent reports of yield losses.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5774

+ INDEPENDENT INQUIRY DEMANDED ON BT COTTON
Gene Campaign reports that the story of Bt cotton is getting murkier by the day: "Dr Kranthi, a scientist from the prestigious cotton research institute in Nagpur publishes a paper providing the scientific data that provides evidence that Bt cotton is not very effective in India, then writes an article in a newspaper recanting pretty much all that he has said in the scientific publication! Not only does he deny his earlier findings and assertions, he springs to the defense of his boss, the DG of ICAR , absolving him of any responsibility in the questionable decisions taken to release Bt cotton.

"If there has been any pressure on Dr Kranthi to revise his views as published in Current Science, this must come out in a careful enquiry. It is highly unusual for a scientist to present another view of his data in a newspaper article after publishing a scientific paper."

Gene Campaign is demanding an independent enquiry on all aspects of Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5778
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5782

+ INDIAN MEDICS CALL FOR MANDATORY GM LABELLLING
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has called for mandatory labelling of GM foods. It said that imported foods containing traces of GMOs should be tested for safety in labs in the country.

The call follows a previous report from The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that noted, "Specific safety issues associated with GM foods include direct or indirect consequences of new g