MONTHLY REVIEW - No. 25
from Claire Robinson, editor
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*Look out for a lot of interesting research this month showing the growing problems affecting both Bt and GM herbicide resistant crops + the impossibility of "co-existence".*

+ MONSANTO'S YEAR-END HIDES PROBLEMS
Monsanto is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars in lost royalty payments while its pipeline of future GM products is drying up, says a new report.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5807

+ 5 FACE TRIAL OVER GM-FED MILK
5 people arrested for trying to stop the distribution of Sainsbury's unlabelled GM-fed milk will go on trial next week at Avon Magistrates Court (near Bristol).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5810

+ U.S. SHOULD KICK ASS OVER GMOs
It's time for John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, and Condi Rice to kick ass over GMOs, says Henry I. Miller, a US advisor to WHO food safety body Codex Alimentarius. Why? Because "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 US should cut off funding and all other assistance to any country or agency (from the UN down) that dares to place regulatory controls on GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5781

+ GREENPEACE 13 ACQUITTED IN GM TRIAL
A jury at Cardiff Crown Court has cleared 13 Greenpeace volunteers of causing a public nuisance. The 13 blocked a ship from unloading its cargo of GM animal feed from the US in Bristol. Greenpeace said tests showed imports of American GM maize coming into Bristol contained illegal GMOs banned in Europe.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5734
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5732

+ OK EXPECTED FOR BEEF FROM CLONED COWS
The US Food and Drug Administration is reportedly nearing a decision to allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned cows and their offspring. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5792

+ 'CO-EXISTENCE' OF GM WITH OTHER CROPS IMPOSSIBLE
Speaking at a conference in Bologna, Italy on 'Co-existence' of GM with conventional or organic crops, Dr Ignacio Chapela told the conference, "'Co-existence' of GMOs and GM-free plants is biologically impossible".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5704

+ JUDGE RAISES CONCERN OVER PEPPER SPRAY
A New Zealand judge has raised serious concerns over police behaviour including their use of pepper spray at an anti-GM protest.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5717

+ FIRST OZ FARMER FALLS PREY TO GM CONTAMINATION
The first confirmed case of GM contamination in a field of commercial canola has struck a Victorian farmer, opening up a legal mine-field for farmers and threatening Australian export markets. Other contamination incidents have also occurred in Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5809
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5685

+ NEW SOUTH WALES GM CROP BAN EXTENDED
NSW Agriculture Minister Ian Macdonald has extended the state ban on GM crops from 2006 to 2008, bringing NSW into line with other states.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5719

+ INDIA: BT COTTON MARKETED ON LIES
A new report on the marketing of Bt cotton in India explodes Monsanto's claims that its achieving higher Bt cotton seed sales in India off the back of the success of its scientifically-based technology. The report shows every unscrupulous trick in the PR book has been used in order to lure India's poor farmers into using GM cotton, including FAKE FARMERS, FAKE BENFITS and FAKE YIELDS. Download the report: http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/marketing-of-bt-cotton-in-indi
For GM Watch's summary of the report:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5741

+ LAB LOSES PLAGUE-RIDDEN GM MICE
3 GM mice infected with bubonic plague have been reported missing from a New Jersey bioterror lab.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5730
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5728

+ POLISH MARSHALS WANT GM-FREE POLAND
The Assembly of Marshals of the Polish Provinces (the opinion-making and advisory body representing the interests of all provinces) has concluded that the Polish Government should prepare a motion to the European Commission to ban the import of GM products in all parts of the country.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5779

+ FUTURE OF FOOD GOES MAINSTREAM
The must-see film The Future of Food premiered this month at Film Forum in New York City to a SOLD OUT Manhattan audience. It also got reviewed in The New York Times, which called called it a "sober, far-reaching polemic against genetically modified foods" and "quietly inflammatory".
http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

+ GM OILSEED STILL CONTAMINATES 15 YEARS ON
New research has found that GM oilseed rape could contaminate non-GM crops 15 years after it was grown - much longer than previously thought.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archiv