from Claire Robinson, editor
[email protected]
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+ GM WATCH IN OTHER LANGUAGES
For the very first time this monthly review is available in German:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6205
and in Dutch:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6235

PLEASE TELL ALL YOUR GERMAN AND DUTCH SPEAKING FRIENDS!

+ GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
We need people with language skills to help us translate our bulletins so that we can reach the widest possible global readership.

We also need your financial support.

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

Financial donations can be made online via the PayPal system (in different currencies, according to preference): http://www.gmwatch.org/donate.asp

Alternatively, you can send a check or money order *made out to 'NGIN'* - please note - to: 26 Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX, UK

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EUROPE
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+ EU FARM CHIEF DEFENDS MORE GMOs IN ORGANIC FARMING
Europe's farm chief has defended her plans to permit more GM content in organic farming, saying it would be too costly for farmers to achieve higher purity in their organic produce. Questioned about her draft law that would allow products with up to 0.9 percent of GM content to retain a label of "EU organic," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the recommended labeling threshold was a realistic one.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6162

+ AUSTRIA BANS MONSANTO'S GM OILSEED RAPE
The Austrian government has banned Monsanto's GM oilseed rape, GT73.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6163

+ GM CROPS IN GERMANY STALLED
Since German companies and seed producers continue to reject demands of German regulators to pay mandatory contributions to a state-regulated compensation fund, observers don't expect any large-scale planting of GM crops in Germany before 2007.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6156

+ THREE QUARTERS OF SWEDISH FARMERS REJECT GMOs
In an opinion poll published 19 January in the farm journal ATL, 74% of Swedish farmers say they will not consider growing GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6155

+ MORE ANTI-GM ACTIVISTS ACQUITTED BY FRENCH COURT
A group of nine activists who destroyed a crop of GM maize in France in 2003 have been acquitted by a Versailles court. A court in the central French city of Orleans last month acquitted 49 people who had been charged with organised vandalism for uprooting GM maize planted by Monsanto.

The judge said in that December case that the activists were justified in their action because "the unbridled distribution of modified genes... constitutes a clear and present danger for the well-being of others, in the sense that it could be the source of contamination and unwanted pollution."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6131

+ EU COMMISSION CAVES IN TO BIOTECH INDUSTRY - AGAIN!
The European Commission has again ignored environmental and health concerns of member states and approved the import and use of three Monsanto GM maizes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6130

+ WHAT'S GOING ON WITH GMOs IN EUROPE - A GUIDE FOR THE CONFUSED
Feel confused about what's going on with GMOs in the EU? You are not alone!

Although no new GMOs have been approved for cultivation in the EU since 1998, there have of late been a series of approvals of GMOs for import for consumption - even though these GMOs are unlikely to end up being intentionally incorporated into food products because of consumer opposition to GMOs.

The recent approvals of GMOs for import into the EU have not been made as a result of decisions by a clear majority of EU member states, but by the EU Commission, which is headed by non-elected bureaucrats who appear to want to free up biotech development.

What is the Commission's real agenda? A clear article on this by Helen Holder of Friends of the Earth Europe is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6137

+ EU COMMISSION ORDERS GREECE TO LIFT GM BAN
The EU Commission has ordered Greece to lift its ban on GM maize seeds. Greece, along with a number of other member states, has consistently voted against any new GMO authorisations. Greece is likely to appeal against the order.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6118

+ MONSANTO TRIES TO CONTAMINATE EU WITH GM SOYA
Greenpeace, joined by a former manager of Monsanto and Limagrain in Romania, Mr Dragos Dima, at a press conference, exposed how Monsanto will try to contaminate EU agriculture with GM s