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WEEKLY WATCH number 184 (20/7/2006)

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

More reports have emerged this week from India showing the shoddiness of GM crops. Yet another new disease seems to be ravaging Bt cotton (ASIA). And Monsanto and the Indian government stand accused of colluding in corporate manslaughter. (POD)

There are two important action alerts: the first is to help the people of Peru prevent their country becoming covered with GM crops (THE AMERICAS), and the second is to put pressure on the French Government not to contaminate France's unique foods with GM pharm crops (EUROPE).

And look out for the new row over the so-called "coexistence" of GM and non-GM crops that's broken out in the UK (EUROPE).

If anyone has sent me an email of late at [email protected], it will not have reached me due to a technical glitch - so my apologies if you didn't receive a reply. I normally reply to all messages from subscribers. If you'd like to, you can readdress your note to [email protected] and Jonathan will forward it to me.

Claire
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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LATEST POD
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
GM CLOTHING
GM ICE CREAM
G8
RESEARCH

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POD - CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER IN INDIA
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On July 11 eight bombs hit Mumbai's commuter rail network during the rush hour, tragically killing at least 200 people and sending shock waves around the world. The Indian government has reacted by trying to stop those who incite such murder, even blocking websites and blogs.

In the latest GM Watch podcast we look at how the Indian government, by contrast, has actually colluded in what's little short of corporate manslaughter - with far more people dying in the state of Mahrashtra alone in the last year, as a result of growing Bt cotton, than were killed in the Mumbai bombings.

The tragedy in Mahrashtra was entirely predictable from the moment Monsanto launched its lavish PR campaign to incite poor farmers to buy expensive Bt cotton seeds with the promise of big profits. The government colluded in the Bt PR offensive, both locally and nationally, and now the resulting controversy has burst around the head of India's Prime Minister.

This podcast also looks at the launch of the latest pro-GM lobby group and at how its declared aims of exposing misinformation and hidden agendas is fatally undermined by its close connection to lobby groups who perfectly exemplify the use of black propaganda and undeclared backers.

Listen to the podcast on your PC via indymedia (eg using QuickTime*) http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/07/5193.shtml

Or on your computer or portable media player via iTunes http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=158600210

*not currently working with Windows Media Player

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THE AMERICAS
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+ URGENT ACTION ALERT
In solidarity with the people of Peru, accionecologica is asking for names of individuals and organisations to sign up to ask President Toledo of Peru not to pass the legislation promoting GMOs in Peru - Please send your name/name of your organisation to [email protected]

You may also want to send a letter to the President of Peru to respectfully ask him NOT to sign the law promoting biotech in Peru. Please send your letter to [email protected]. Address him as Doctor Alejandro Toledo Manrique, Presidente Constitucional del Peru. You can also fax him: 00 51 1 311 43 07.

More information in English and Spanish at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6780

+ RESEARCHERS CONFIRM ANOTHER GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEED
University of Missouri researchers have confirmed that tall waterhemp is the sixth glyphosate-resistant weed in the US and the ninth such weed in the world. Tall waterhemp from a field near the Missouri River in Platte County was found to survive despite being treated with up to eight times the labeled rate of glyphosate.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The fields where resistant waterhemp was found had been in continuous (GM) Roundup Ready soybean production since 1996.

While all resistant weeds are worrisome, Bradley says resistant tall waterhemp is especially troubling. "Waterhemp is one of Missouri's toughest weed problems," he says. "It has developed resistance to a number of other soybean herbicides." That resistance has been known to spread quickly.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6766

And another highly problematic weed - Roundup resistant pigweed - is spreading across Georgia due to GM cotton: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6766

+ KEY FIGURE IN DEVELOPMENT OF GM DENIES EVOLUTION
Dr John Sanford, who invented the gene gun which enables the production of GM crops, is giving a lecture series 17-20 July at Mississippi State University in which he will deny evolutionary theory and support Christian creationist theory. Sanford says he will show that if evolutionary theory were true, then humans would be degenerating, not evolving, as a species.

GM Watch comment: Dr Sandford has a perfect right to his own views. B

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