from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Truth has triumphed over spin on several gratifying occasions this week. First, the Western Australian government has decided to fund food safety tests on GM canola. If the testing goes ahead, it will probably be the first attempt at an independent study funded by government since the British government funded Dr Pusztai's experiments (FOOD SAFETY).

Second, the Swiss people have voted to ban the cultivation of GMOs for five years (EUROPE). Third, the Indian government has finally admitted to the failure of Bt cotton in two states after maintaining an ostrich-like blindness for years (ASIA). And fourth, in response to a complaint from SpinWatch, Reuters has corrected a misleading report on GM in Africa which failed to point out the corporate affiliations of Monsanto-trained lobbyist Florence Wambugu. (LOBBYWATCH).

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

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CONTENTS
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FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
EUROPE
LOBBYWATCH
AFRICA
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - SOUTH AFRICA

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ PLAYING WITH OUR FOOD - SUPERB ARTICLE
An article with the above title by Pat Howard, associate professor of communication at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, looks at the damning evidence of harm caused by GM foods.

EXCERPT:

[In the Pusztai/Ewen study] After only 10 days, a significant number of the rats that ate the GM potatoes showed signs of arrested development of their livers, testicles, and brains. Some suffered damage to the thymus and spleen, which are both crucial to immune system function. The rats' white blood cells also appeared to have been affected. The cells lining their stomachs and intestines had begun to proliferate and undergo structural change, an ominous sign of the possibility of an increased risk of cancer. The feeding continued for 110 days, the equivalent of the first 10 years of a child's life.

... How do genetic engineers manage to get foreign DNA into the genome of a host plant and enable the plant to utilize it to produce proteins that confer the ability to tolerate a particular herbicide or antibiotic, or to kill insect pests? The fact is that they exploit the infectious capacities of viruses and bacteria. One commonly used vector is a soil bacterium, a plant pathogen that causes galls or tumours. Only the DNA coding for proteins involved in inducing tumours is used...

... We are part of one enormous feeding experiment in which none of us have given informed consent.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6005

+ NEW EVIDENCE OF HARM FROM GM FOOD TRIGGERS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE BAN
EXCERPT from excellent press release from GM free Cymru:
Three new studies of the health effects of GM foods have triggered fresh demands for GM components in human food and animal feed to be banned immediately, and have also led to accusations of criminal negligence aimed at the UK Government and European Commission.

The first of the studies, conducted by Russian scientist Irina Ermakova, showed that an astounding 55% of the offspring of rats fed on GM soya died within three weeks of birth, compared with only 9% in the control group. The second, conducted by Manuela Malatesta and colleagues in the Universities of Pavia and Urbino in Italy, showed that mice fed on GM soya experienced a slowdown in cellular metabolism and modifications to liver and pancreas. And the third study, conducted by CSIRO in Australia, showed that the introduction of genes from a bean variety into a GM pea led to the creation of a novel protein which caused inflammation of the lung tissue of mice. So serious was the damage that the research was halted, and stocks of the GM pea have been destroyed. The developers have now made a commitment that the "rogue" variety will never be marketed.

These studies, all revealed in the scientific literature within the past few weeks, have caused widespread alarm throughout the world, since two of them suggest that GM soya (used in a large number of foods) might be very dangerous, and since they appear to confirm the findings of Dr Arpad Pusztai and Dr Stanley Ewen, whose paper on physiological changes in rats fed on GM potatoes caused a worldwide sensation in 1999.

...Responding to the three new GM studies, and to the avalanche of new work demonstrating that GM foods are actually harmful to human beings and other animals, Dr Michael Antoniou said: "If the kind of detrimental effects seen in animals fed GM food were observed in a clinical setting, the use of the product would have been halted and further research instigated to determine the cause and find possible solutions. However, what we find repeatedly in the case of GM food is that both governments and industry plough on ahead with the development, endorsement and marketing GM foods despite the warnings of potential ill health from animal feeding studies, as if nothing has happened. This is to the point where governments and industry even seem to ignore the results of their own research! There is clearly a need more than ever before for independent research into the potential ill effects of GM food including most importantly extensive animal and human feeding trials."

More, and detailed references, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5989

+ INDEPENDENT TESTS ON GM CANOLA
Genetically modified canola varieties Roundup Ready and Invigor are likely to be assessed under an animal feeding trial to be funded by the Australian state government. Topas 19/2, the Bayer GM variety found in non-GM canola recently, may also be added to the trial.

Agriculture Minister Kim Chance anounced the trial earlier this week, which aims to gain independent data on the safety, or otherwise, of GM food crops.

The government has approved a proposal from the Institute of Health and Environmental Research in Adelaide, a not-for-profit research institute. The announcement follows news that a study on a variety of GM pea caused inflammation of the lungs of mice.

IHER director Judy Carman told Countryman that in the initial proposal put t