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WEEKLY WATCH number 156 (24/12/2005)

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

We've some especially important articles this week. We're all familiar with the reports of the failure of Bt cotton in India, but with so much focus on the scientific and agronomic facts it's easy to forget that behind every blighted field of Bt cotton are hungry and desperate families. New reports from India give shocking accounts of the human suffering and devastation caused by Bt cotton (ASIA). The residents of one community have even been forced to put their village up for sale.

And even if you're familiar with the arguments around the lack of GM food safety data, you'll still find a superbly well-researched and informative article by Jeffrey Smith on the lack of GM food safety testing will manage to surprise and enlighten you further (FOOD SAFETY).

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

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CONTENTS
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WTO
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
FOOD SAFETY
LOBBYWATCH
COMPANY NEWS
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
NANOTECHNOLOGY

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GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
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'Tis the season to be generous and GM Watch is asking for your support as we prepare to celebrate 7 years of running our e-mail lists - first launched in January 1999. In particular, we need financial donations and people with language skills to translate our bulletins so that we can reach the widest possible global readership.

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Keisuke Amagasa, NO! GMO Campaign, Japan

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WTO
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+ CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE CALLED TO OPPOSE GMOs AT WTO
In Hong Kong, civil society groups delivered a strong message to the sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in a petition against GMOs.

Presented to WTO deputy director-general Alejandro Jara, the petition urged the global body to respect people's self determination to "know and choose what they eat and farm", honour governments' right to "protect their citizens and the environment from GMO food and farming", and reject trading complaints of the US and other GM producers.

The outcome of a US-EU dispute being heard at the WTO over GMOs has wide ramifications for developing countries, anti-GM campaigners such as Vandana Shiva pointed out. Shiva said, "If Europe is losing, it means the rise of citizens everywhere to make protests - the rights of Monsanto are put above the people, and direct action is the answer".

The Hong Kong Ministerial of the WTO has met with widespread protests across Southeast Asia. NGOs and groups from all over India met in a two-day-long conference in Delhi in the week before Hong Kong to initiate a mass movement against the conference that they believe is a new instrument of colonialism.

"It is more difficult than the freedom struggle [against British rule in India]," says Amar Nath Jha. "Now, our own government, our own police are on their side [the WTO's and the multinationals']."

Madhuri of Jagriti Adivasi Dalit Sanghtan, working in Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh (India), agrees: "The Bt cotton crop was a failure, so many farmers committed suicide. But even after this, the MNCs, and disgustingly, the government too is encouraging farmers to use it."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6062

+ WTO – THE POOR STAY POOR AND WE CARRY ON POLLUTING
Andy Rowell gives a rundown on the implications of the WTO meeting in Hong Kong. Once again, it's business as usual for the rich countries and poverty as usual for the third world:

EXCERPT: America has agreed to end its cotton subsidies by 2006. On the surface this is good news, but once again the devil is in the detail. Aftab Alam Khan from Action Aid points that "the vast majority of its nearly $4bn of subsidies takes the form of domestic support not export subsidies". So the inequality will continue.

This inequality is destroying third world farmers...

Now to add insult to injury, the US is trying to undermine these farmers even further by introducing genetically modified cotton into the African market. This could destroy the cotton farmers especially in countries like Mali, sub-Saharan Africa's largest cotton producer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6064

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THE AMERICAS
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+ BRAZIL – CONTRABAND GM MAIZE CAUSES ALARM
Reports of ille

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