from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

A new report asks, "Who benefits from GM crops?" It has important new information and is worth a closer look (NEW REPORT: WHO BENEFITS FROM GM CROPS?).

Please URGENTLY ask India's regulator to ban GM field trials, in the wake of the totally illegal and unscientific practices that have recently been exposed (ASIA).

And don't miss Jeffrey Smith wiping the floor with a biotech lobbyist (LOBBYWATCH).

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

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CONTENTS
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FOOD SAFETY
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
NEW REPORT: WHO BENEFITS FROM GM CROPS?
GLOBAL CONTAMINATION
LOBBYWATCH

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GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
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GM Watch is asking for your support. We need financial donations and people with language skills so that we can reach the widest possible global readership. More about how you can help: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6043

"I checked out your website. I had no idea you had so much useful information. You are providing an incredible service to all of us wanting to know what is really going on in the GM battle." - Rick North, Project Director, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility's Campaign for Safe Food, USA

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ NEW STUDY SHOWS UNBORN BABIES COULD BE HARMED
At last, there's some mainstream media coverage of the Ermakova study on GM soy, which found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on GM soy died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also severely underweight.

You can hear Dr Irina Ermakova, a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, talking about her GM soy study, as well as the comments of the biotechnologist, Dr Michael Antoniou, and Monsanto spin doctor, Tony Combes, on BBC's Farming Today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/farmingtoday_wed

Alternatively go to the Farming Today web page and click on 'Listen again' for Wednesday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/farmingtoday/

Dr Ermakova tells the BBC that when she saw her findings, "I was shocked. I was so shocked by these data that I repeated these experiments 3 times."

Monsanto's man, Tony Combes, tells the BBC that they are irresponsible to even report Dr Ermakova's findings!

The Independent on Sunday, 8 January 2006, puts the Ermakova study into context:

EXCERPT:
Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies, startling new research suggests...

The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages human health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long attempt to develop modified peas when an official study found they caused lung damage.

And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to their immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional one.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6104

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THE AMERICAS
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+ HAWAII: PROTESTORS GEAR UP FOR BIOTECH EVENT
Activists pledge to be out in force at this week's Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, which starts 11 January at Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Mililani Trask of Na Koa Ikaika Kalahui Hawaii, a human rights and environmental group, said a main concern is the lack of a framework to protect the environment and native species. Hawaiian groups created just such as framework in 2003 in a document called the "Paoakalani Declaration." But politicians and corporations have ignored the declaration, she said.

Trask points to a lawsuit involving Mera Pharmaceuticals Inc. as an example of the state's deficiencies. When the company wanted to GM algae from California to grow on the Big Island, environmental groups had to sue to force the state Department of Agriculture to require studies of potential environmental impacts.

There's also the issue of patenting the genes of native plants and microscopic organisms, a process called bioprospecting. Although the conference has a panel on bioprospecting, Trask said she and other locals were denied the chance to participate.

"It's a shame that public resources were spent, and every effort was made to exclude the public, the farmers, the native Hawaiian stakeholders," she said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6117

+ NON-GMO PROJECT LAUNCHED IN U.S. AND CANADA
A group of natural grocery stores and co-ops in the United States and Canada have formed The Non-GMO Project, which will provide North American consumers with the ability to purchase non-GMO products produced in compliance with a membership supported, rigorous non-GMO Program Standard.

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