from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Some great news this week: it seems likely that BASF's GM potatoes won't be coming to Ireland following the County Council of Meath's unanimous resolve to declare the county a GM-free zone. Also, a court in France has decided the GM companies can't hide the locations of their trial sites (EUROPE).

Finally, scientists believe they have identified some non-allergenic non-GM soy lines, which they plan to give away to researchers - watch out Monsanto don't take them specifically to make a GM version (RESEARCH)!

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

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CONTENTS
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EUROPE
LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
RESEARCH

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EUROPE
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+ IRISH GM CROP EXPERIMENT CANCELED!
Meath Co. Council unanimously passed two motions on 8 May, that are widely expected to force BASF to abandon an experiment with GM potatoes which it hoped to launch this week at Summerhill, Co. Meath.

The Council's first motion declares Meath a GMO-free zone. This makes Meath the sixth county on the island to prohibit GMO seeds and crops, along with Cavan, Clare, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Roscommon, and the towns of Galway, Navan, Newry and Clonakilty. The Council's second motion calls on the EPA to not allow the experimental growing of any GMO seeds or crops in Ireland. Councillors said the EPA's decision would produce experimental transgenic potatoes that could not be placed on the market either as animal feed or food, and that the EPA and BASF failed to apply for the planning permission that is consequently required by law for re-zoning the farmland from agricultural to development use.

They also said the legal requirement imposed by the EPA for BASF to protect the site with a high-security electrical fence does not conform with normal agricultural practice under Section 5 of the Planning Act. Frank Corcoran, Chairman of An Taisce (the National Trust for Ireland), said the Meath Co. Council decisions will trigger a lengthy legal procedure that will effectively prevent the release of GMO crops in Meath for the foreseeable future.

Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent said, "Irish farmers join with Irish consumers in saying we will not stand idly by and watch the green clean GM-free image which helps sell Irish food be destroyed by the commercial colonisation of BASF."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6523

+ GM ISSUE COULD TOPPLE EU CONSTITUTION
Kathy Sinnott, an Irish Member of the European Parliament, has said that if the European Commission persists in its misguided policy to force GM seeds and crops on Ireland, the people of Ireland will vote against adopting the European Constitution and against any further EU integration.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6529

+ IRISH LABOUR PARTY JOINS GM-FREE IRELAND CAMPAIGN
The Labour Party spokesperson for agriculture and food, Mary Upton, announced that the Labour Party supports the campaign to conserve Ireland's GMO-free status. Mary Upton said the Labour Party considers the European Commisson's refusal to recognise the right of its member states and regions to ban GMO seeds and crops if they want to do so as undemocratic and completely unacceptable.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6529

+ IRELAND'S GREEN PARTY LEADER TELLS EU: WE DON'T WANT GM SEED AND CROPS
In the Dail (Irish Parliament), Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent took the EU to task for trying to impose GM seeds and crops on Ireland, saying, "The people I represent are angry with the EU for colluding with the World Trade Organisation to indulge the commercial colonisation tactics of GM biotech companies."

"The people and farmers of Ireland are not asking, they are telling the European Commission that they will determine the future of our GM free status which up to now has been taken for granted. The words of Herr Rudi Anschober, Minister for the Environment in Austria are a call to action in Ireland too when he says that 'it is a basic principle that we can decide on our own what will grow in our fields! We demand the right of self-determination for the region'."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6529

+ EU AUTHORIZES POLISH BAN ON GM MAIZE SEEDS
European Union officials have authorized a Polish ban on the use of around 700 types of maize seed, including 16 GM varieties, which had been cleared for sale throughout the EU. The European Commission said the Polish ban was justified because the maize varieties had a long growing cycle that would prevent the crop ripening in the Polish climate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6519

+ TRIALS OF 2 GM MAIZES CANCELLED BY FRENCH COUNCIL OF STATE
On April 28, the French Council of State ruled in favour of a suit brought by the Federation of Farmers Trade Unions (Modef) which alleged that authorizations of Monsanto GM maize trials granted by the French biosafety commission (CGB) on 1 June 2004 followed an irregular process.

Modef said that the CGB and the minister of agriculture made their decision based on incomplete information as regards to the location of the proposed trials. Now, the highest French administrative court has validated Modef's argument.

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