from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Why are we not surprised that the drug that produced horrific side effects on human volunteers turns out to be genetically engineered (GM MEDICINES)? We have some not-new but interesting research on the ill health effects caused by non-GM Bt crop spray, which raises the question of why the United States authorities have failed to safety-test the GM version that's engineered into food crops (THE AMERICAS).

There's an urgent action aimed at getting the New Zealand government to stop acting as an agent of the United States by blocking labeling of GMOs at the Biosafety Protocol meeting (BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL).

And look out for some interesting comments from Dr Arpad Pusztai, Dr Chuck Benbrook and Charles Margulis (FOOD AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY).

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

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CONTENTS
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BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL
GM MEDICINES
ASIA
EUROPE
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
TERMINATOR
FOOD AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

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BIOAFETY PROTOCOL
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+ URGENT: BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL - TAKE ACTION
We urgently need to take action against the New Zealand government which is attempting to block the Biosafety Protocol from being implemented. The negotiations are currently taking place in Curitiba in Brazil. Please send a fax or, if this is not possible, an email to the New Zealand Prime Minister.

The key issue is whether developing countries will have the right to know whether shipments coming into their country contain GMOs. If they do not know if a shipment has GMOs in then they cannot implement any biosafety legislation. Their food and environment will become contaminated.

There's a draft letter at
http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/campaigns/ge/biosafety-action-02.asp

Please feel free to edit into your own words. Please send fax as soon as possible. If you cannot, please send an email.
FAX Number: +64 4 473 3579 EMAIL Helen Clark [email protected]

See Sustainability Council of NZ critique of NZ central govt position on Terminator, labelling, liability for LMOS:
http://www.sustainabilitynz.org/news_item.asp?sID=153

and their new report, "Brave New Biosecurity":
http://www.sustainabilitynz.org/docs/BraveNewBiosecurity.pdf
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6345

+ NZ A STALKING HORSE FOR THE U.S. ON GMOs
New Zealand appears to be a "stalking-horse" for the United States in blocking consensus on the labelling of living GE organisms traded between countries, NZ Greens Environment Spokesperson, Nandor Tanczos says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6345

+ AFRICANS MISSING AT KEY BIOSAFETY TALKS
Many African countries are absent from the international Biosafety Protocol meeting in Brazil because they cannot afford to send their delegates to it, with major implications for the meeting's outcome for all developing countries. "There just weren't enough [financial] pledges in" from developed donor countries, said a delegate from Namibia. "There were more [pledges] on Sunday but... it was too late. I have not seen my fellow delegates from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Swaziland or Morocco."

Some African delegates may arrive next week as there was more money pledged for biodiversity - which developed countries have an interest in. By then the important decisions on GMO labelling will have been made.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6350

+ HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS RELATED TO GM SOY EXPANSION IN PARAGUAY
A new report will be presented at the Biosafety Protocol meeting in Curitiba, Brazil, providing detailed accounts of the current violent campaign against rural and indigenous communities in Paraguay, which is strongly related to the expansion of GM soy production. Witnesses of the cases exposed in the report will be present at the meeting. The report has been compiled by Grupo de Reflexion Rural (Argentina).

EXCERPT from press release announcing new report:
Jorge Galeano witnessed the infamous eviction of June 24 2005 in the community of Tekojoja, where a group of soy producers and hired policemen expelled 270 people from their lands, burnt 54 houses and adjacent fields, arrested 130 people and killed two. In 2003, Petrona Villasboa and her entire family were poisoned after fumigations with glyphosate by a GM soy producer next to their farm. Her 11-year-old son Silvino Talavera died...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6337

+ PRO-GM LOBBY GROUP IN CURITIBA
Among the pro-biotech lobby groups active in Curitiba, Brazil, this week at the 3rd Meeting of the Parties (MOP-3) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the Public Research and Regulation Initiative - a pro-GM lobby which will be fielding over 40 representatives, mostly picked from the developing world and trained and scripted by PRRI, to promote identical goals to those of the industry.

A profile of the group, whose leading lobbyists in Curitiba include former Monsanto man Gerard Barry, and Piet van der Meer, who