from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

The big story this week is the discovery of illegal GM rice contaminating the U.S. rice crop (GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL). This rice was never grown commercially, only in field trials which stopped in 2001, which shows the extent to which GM contamination is uncontrollable.

With an arrogance typical of the industry, at the same time that the rice contamination scandal broke, BASF applied to trial GM potatoes in the UK (EUROPE).

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

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CONTENTS}
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THE AMERICAS
GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
EUROPE
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH

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THE AMERICAS
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+ U.S. MAINSTREAM MEDIA TURNS ON REGULATORS
Even before the latest incident with GM rice, the U.S. media had begun to give federal regulators a pounding for their abysmal failure to control GM crops.

EXCERPTS FROM THE US PRESS:
*Denver Post: Given the recent revelations of blunders, we think federal regulators ought to re-evaluate the regulatory process and monitoring safeguards. While tomatoes run amok might be the stuff of Hollywood, the risks from sloppy handling of gene-altered crops is all too real.

*Hartford Courant: The judge called USDA's regulatory heedlessness "arbitrary and capricious" and "an unequivocal violation of a clear congressional mandate."

Those findings recall similar conclusions reached by the USDA's own auditors last year.

Unless the USDA can prove capable of doing a far better job of regulating crops, the courts and Congress should consider imposing a moratorium on new permits. Mother Nature shouldn't be used as a laboratory for some uncontrolled genetic experiment.

*Minneapolis Star Tribune: ...it's a nightmare scenario for Oregon's seed producers. If the resistance gene shows up in their grasses, it could kill exports to the many countries that ban genetically modified plants. If it shows up in noxious grasses, their weed-control problems will multiply...

For the full articles: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6920

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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ ILLEGAL GM RICE IN U.S. FOOD SUPPLY - FDA/USDA
Late on Friday 18th it was announced that an unapproved GM rice (LLRice 601) grown only in Bayer field trials had been found contaminating US long-grain rice. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6908

+ JAPAN SUSPENDS U.S. LONG-GRAIN RICE IMPORTS
Japan quickly suspended imports of all US long-grain rice. Japan has a zero-tolerance policy on imports of unapproved GMO crops, and importers of crops tainted with unapproved GMOs must destroy them or ship them back to exporting countries. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6910

+ JAPAN MAY TEST EVEN NON-LONG GRAIN RICE
Japan is considering testing even short- and medium-grain rice from the United States because it cannot rule out the possibility that U.S. rice cargoes arriving in Japan might contain LLRice 601. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=25794&sid=9581586&con_type=1

+ US RICE PRICE DIVES BECAUSE OF TAINTED RICE
Rice prices tumbled to their lowest level in months after the discovery of U.S. rice supplies tainted with unapproved GM rice. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6922

+ JAPAN RICE BAN WORRIES RICE FARMERS
The Japanese ban of long-grain rice from the US set off alarm among farmers and added fuel to a debate over GM rice. Even in California, where they don't grow long-grain rice, farmers are worried that contamination is a near certainty in a state where hundreds of crops are grown in close proximity.

"Biotech does not recognize a fence line where one farmer's property ends and another begins," said Bryce Lundberg, a rice grower with Lundberg Family Farms.

The farm, based near Chico in the northern Sacramento Valley, supports keeping California free of GMOs. Lundberg said the situation surrounding the Japanese rice ban "points at the heart of the reason the farm opposes them." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6921

+ INDIA MAY MOVE IN ON JAPANESE RICE MARKET
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6921

+ BAN CALL IN WEST AFRICA
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6918

+ EU CLAMPS DOWN ON GM RICE
The emergency measures announced on 23 August by the European Commission will mean that - with immediate effect - consignments of US long grain rice will not be allowed into the EU unless they have been tested by an accredited laboratory using a validated testing method and are accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence of LL Rice 601. The Commission also declared that Member States should