from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

The most intriguing news this week is the report that 90 American cotton farmers are suing Monsanto and other biotechs for the failure of their Bt cotton crops. Predictably, Monsanto is seeking to avoid exposure to a jury trial and to get the suit settled behind closed doors (THE AMERICAS).

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

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CONTENTS
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THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
BIOETHICS
LOBBYWATCH
CHURCHES

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THE AMERICAS
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+ COTTON FARMERS SUE MONSANTO AND OTHERS FOR CROP LOSS; MONSANTO SEEKS TO AVOID JURY
More than 90 Texas cotton farmers have sued Monsanto and two affiliated companies, claiming they suffered widespread crop losses because Monsanto failed to warn them of a defect in its GM cotton. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Marshall, Texas, seeks an injunction against what it calls a "longstanding campaign of deception," and asks the court to award both actual and punitive damages.

In addition to Monsanto, the suit names Delta & Pine Land and Bayer CropScience, producers and retailers of Monsanto's biotech cotton.

Monsanto, which denies the allegations, wants the complaints removed from the court system (which would involve a jury) and handled through arbitration. About half of the farmers agreed this week to enter into arbitration, but others have not.

The farmers' essential claim is that Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" cotton did not tolerate applications of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller as it has been genetically altered to do.

The farmers claim there is evidence that the promoter gene inserted into the cotton seeds in the genetic modification process does not work as designed in extreme high heat and drought conditions, allowing herbicide to eat into plant tissue, leading to boll deformity, shedding and reduced yields.

The plaintiffs claim Monsanto knew this but did not disclose it so the farmers would continue to buy and use Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. "We feel like Monsanto's been lying to us all along," said B.B. Krenek, a Wharton, Texas cotton consultant who is working with a number of affected farmers.

Monsanto spokesman Andrew Berchet said the weather is to blame for the crop losses.[!]
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6284
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6290

+ MONSANTO TO PAY UNIVERSITY $100 MILLION IN PATENT CASE
Monsanto has agreed to pay the University of California more than $100 million to settle the school's claim that the company infringed on a patent related to a GM hormone that makes cows produce more milk. The university's Board of Regents and Monsanto announced the settlement as the bovine growth hormone case was scheduled to go to trial.

The university alleged that three researchers at UC San Francisco first isolated the DNA used to make the hormone. The lawsuit said Monsanto knew about the research as early as 1985, but sold the product anyway, under the brand name Posilac.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6290

+ HAWAII LAWMAKERS LIMIT GM FIELD TRIALS
Hawaii state senators have advanced two bills putting limits on the genetic modification of taro and coffee, crops that are key to Hawaii's identity. The bills would ban until 2011 the field testing of GM strains of both plants. The modified plants could, however, be grown in greenhouses.

The taro bill also would place a five-year ban on genetically modifying Hawaiian varieties of the plant, whose roots are made into poi, one of the state's best-known foods. In Hawaiian folklore, taro is considered to be a sacred ancestor of Native Hawaiians, linking them to island soil. The bills now head to the full Senate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6300

+ ARE THERE HUMAN GENES IN YOUR FOOD?
A professor at Washington State University and a private Canadian company, SemBioSys, have applied for permits to turn two common food crops - barley and safflower - into virtual factories for synthetic drugs or chemicals.

On its website, SemBioSys declares its plan to inject safflower with human genes to produce experimental insulin and a drug for heart attacks and strokes. WSU confirms that it plans to grow barley, injected with human genes, to produce artificial proteins with pharmaceutical properties. Where these fields will be is secret; nearby farmers and residents won't be notified.

Pharma crops are supposed to be rigorously regulated. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not review biopharmaceutical crops before planting, even though many of them have toxic or anti-nutritional effects on human health or the environment.

A recent audit by the US Dept of Agriculture's inspector general found the USDA failed to inspect field trial sites as promised and didn't even know where some experiments were planted. The inspector general also found that USDA didn't follow up to find out what happened to the biopharm harvests. Two tons of a drug-laden crop was stored for more than a year at two sites without USDA's knowledge or inspection.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6293

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EUROPE
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