from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all:

This week the focus is on India - the spate of suicides among Bt cotton farmers; the scandal of secret GM crop trials with massive biosafety failings; and the fight back by activists, farmers' unions and state governments (ASIA).

Don't miss a stunning conflict of interest in the Ministry overseeing GM crop trials in Kenya (Africa), a scathing expose by its own auditors of the US Department of Agriculture's lax regulation of GM crop trials (THE AMERICAS) and some new research on soya, which apparently shows that a soya-based diet worsens heart disease in mice (FOOD SAFETY). The researchers do not discriminate between GM and non-GM soya, but as the study was done in the US, it seems probable it's GM.

A happy new year to all our readers and supporters.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
FOOD SAFETY
LOBBYWATCH

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

GM Watch is asking for your support as we celebrate 7 years of running our e-mail lists. We need financial donations and people with language skills to help us sustain what we're doing and reach the widest possible global readership.

Please find out more about how you can help: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6043

"The genetic engineering industry spends hundreds of millions of US dollars on global PR, marketing, lobbying and buying-off of politicians. Sustaining the work of GM Watch is essential to countering this corporate political power and propaganda." - John Stauber, founder PR Watch and co-author of Trust Us, We're Experts; Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, and Weapons of Mass Deception.

------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ VENTRIA CANCELS MOVE TO NW MISSOURI
Pharma company Ventria Bioscience has announced that it won't be moving to Northwest Missouri State University.

Ventria, which is currently based in Sacramento, California, had planned to remove proteins from GM rice at a facility under construction at the university.

The collapse of the deal follows major opposition to Ventria's proposal to grow GM pharma rice in Missouri's rice-growing region.

When the deal was first announced, it was claimed 2,000 acres of Ventria crops would be grown in Missouri in 2005, with Missouri farmers eventually growing more than 70% of Ventria's US field production. However, Missouri farmers and rice buyers united in opposition to the idea of even Ventria's field trials being held in the state.

Major Missouri corporations, including Anheuser-Busch and Riceland Foods, strongly opposed Ventria's plans, with Anheuser-Busch at one point vowing to boycott Missouri's 30 million-bushel rice crop if pharma plants were grown in the state.

As a result of the opposition, no pharma rice trials took place in Missouri in 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6091

+ REPORT BLASTS OVERSIGHT OF TEST FIELDS
The US Dept of Agriculture has failed to properly oversee field trials of GM crops, including plants designed to produce chemicals for medical and industrial uses, investigators say.

A report released by the USDA's inspector general said the department "lacks basic information" on where field tests are or what is done with the crops after they are harvested.

The report is the latest blow to prospects for developing an industry based on mass-producing pharmaceutical chemicals from GM corn. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack once called the idea the "future of our state."

During the inspector general investigation, auditors found that two large harvests of pharmaceutical crops remained in storage at test sites without the USDA's knowledge or approval.

The investigators also said that in 2003 the department failed to inspect fields of pharmaceutical crops with the frequency that officials said they would. "Current (USDA) regulations, policies and procedures do not go far enough to ensure the safe introduction of agricultural biotechnology," the report said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6086
The full USDA report is at http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/50601-08-TE.pdf

Greenpeace's Jeremy Tager comments on the USDA report:
Considering it is a US government document, it is an extraordinary read! APHIS [the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] doesn't know where the trial crops are - even pharma and industrial crops - because a single permit allows multiple plantings in multiple states. APHIS doesn't monitor, doesn't track disposition of trials (including pharma crops - at least 2 cases are noted of large quantities of pharma crops stored on-farm for over a year - the storage facilities never assessed. Serious violations ignored - planting of a commercial, unregulated crop in the same field as a pharma crop.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6093

+ VERMONT SENATE WATERS DOWN GM SEED BILL
A long-debated measure designed to hold seed manufacturers liable for the accidental spread of GM crops was narrowly defeated in the Vermont Senate.

The House passed a less stringent version of the bill, which requires that lawsuits over the unintentional spread of GM crops be