Claire Robinson, editor

Check out the new GM Watch podcasts
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=80&page=1

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
CONTAMINATION
PROTESTS AND RESISTANCE
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD SAFETY
RESEARCH
LABELLING
SETBACKS FOR THE GM INDUSTRY
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
PATENTS ON LIFE
BIOFUELS
GM MEDICINES / GENE THERAPY
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
CHURCHES
GOVERNMENT SLEAZE
NANOTECHNOLOGY

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ LEADING RESEARCHER CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF "WORMY" CORN PAPER
New Scientist reports that a leading researcher into scientific ethics is calling for the withdrawal of a paper published in the British Food Journal.

The study, carried out at a farm store in Canada, claimed that sales of GM sweetcorn were 50 per cent higher than those of non-GM corn. The journal later awarded the study a prize as its "most outstanding paper" of 2004.

But New Scientist reports that GM Watch has published a photograph that it says shows a large sign suspended above the non-GM corn during the study asking: "Would you eat wormy sweet corn?" The GM corn, it claims, was labelled as "quality sweet corn". The paper claims that the corn was marked simply as either genetically engineered or regular.

If this is the case, "it is grounds for the journal to retract the article", says Richard Jennings, who studies research conduct at the University of Cambridge. The journal's editor has refused to withdraw the paper, but says he is willing to publish a letter condemning it followed by a response from the lead author, Doug Powell of Kansas State University.

To see the picture and for more on the paper go to:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72&page=1

For the full New Scientist piece:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025533.300&feedId=gm-food_rss20

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CONTAMINATION
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+ THAILAND: GREENPEACE HELPS PLANTER DESTROY GM-CONTAMINATED ORCHARD
A papaya planter in Rayong's Klaeng district sought help from Greenpeace to demolish his orchard to stop the spread of GM papaya. Teerasak Bamrung, the orchard owner, is among 2,669 farmers in 37 provinces who obtained papaya seeds from the Department of Agriculture's Khon Kaen research station in 2003 and 2004. The seeds turned out to be GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6550

+ MARKET LOSS AND CONTAMINATION - GM PAPAYA
GM papaya grown in Hawaii has been hyped as a huge success story - but nothing could be further from the truth, says an article in the Bangkok Post. The article says, "The concern over this ... GMO food is so great, that it creates resistance, loss of markets, contamination and more loss of markets."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6493

+ UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PAPAYA SEEDS STILL GM-TAINTED
A group of farmers and community members who oppose GM plants have said that some GM papaya seeds are still mixed in with packets of papaya seeds being sold by the University of Hawaii.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6559

Click here for a 19-page report in pdf format http://www.gmofreemaui.com/press_releases/Contamination_Report.pdf

+ EU NATIONS DIVIDED OVER ORGANIC FOOD RULES
European Union agriculture ministers are divided over plans to set up new EU-wide labelling of organic and GM foods.

Several nations, including Belgium, Austria, Italy and Greece, demanded that any new rules on what constitutes organic should ensure that GM content of the product be near zero, and not the proposed 0.9 percent limit, which EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel argued was needed to account for accidental contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6553

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PROTESTS AND RESISTANCE
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+ BASF ADMITS DEFEAT OF GM POTATO EXPERIMENT
Chemicals company BASF said it will not go ahead with its GM potato experiment in Co. Meath this year, and may cancel it altogether.

BASF said it made the decision because of the conditions imposed in the provisional consent given by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The cancellation may also have been influenced by nationwide opposition from more than 100 farm and food industry groups, resistance by TDs (members of the Irish Parliament) from all parties, two motions passed unanimously by Meath Co. Council, and the threat of further legal action on planning and constitutional grounds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6577
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6563

+ ANTI-GM ACTIVISTS ON TRIAL IN BANGKOK
A biotech scientist and Hawai