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WEEKLY WATCH number 195 (4/10/2006)

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

The biotech industry has been claiming that GM has saved US farmers from drought, which is surprising considering that there are no drought-resistant GM crops available. What is less surprising is that this claim appears to be based on no evidence at all -- just the opinion of a single representative of a company punting biotech seeds! (THE AMERICAS)

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

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CONTENTS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
IMPORTANT TV DOCUMENTARY

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CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ RUSSIA: U.S. RICE IMPORTS SUSPENDED
The Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian agricultural inspection agency, announced 29 September that it has stopped issuing quarantine permits for US rice because of the presence of illegal GM rice, which had not passed safety tests.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7098

+ CROP CIRCLES APPEAR ON THREE CONTINENTS
Greenpeace activists on 3 October created giant crop circles in maize fields on three different continents to mark the beginning of a global campaign to protect maize - one of the world's most important staple foods - against contamination from GM varieties. The crop circles - large enough to be clearly visible from the air - appeared in fields in Spain, the Philippines and Mexico.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7098

+ SCIENTISTS AND OTHERS PROTEST
Many scientists and others have signed an open letter to the food agencies of European countries calling on them to recall all products contaminated with illegal rice LL601 on grounds of food safety.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7090

+ GENEWATCH COMMENT ON CONTAMINATION
Dr Sue Mayer of Genewatch comments:

There are now 132 [GM contamination] incidents on the register and they show GM contamination can arise at every stage of development - from the laboratory, to the field, to the plate.

It shows that the controls in place are prone to failure and human error is increasingly being shown to take place - people seem unable or unwilling to take the precautions required by the law or commercial demands.

For many in the biotech industry, the fuss caused by GM contamination episodes, such as those from LL601RICE and Bt10 maize, is excessive because they do not believe there is a risk to human health or the environment.

Because the full details of these GM crops are not in the public domain, an independent assessment of claims of safety is not possible. Whether these particular GMOs are harmful or not, their presence in the food chain demonstrates the inability of the industry to maintain separation between GM and non-GM lines.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7088

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ASIA
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+ MOST FARMER SUICIDES RELATE TO GM COTTON - TIMES OF INDIA
The Times of India reports that the introduction of Bt cotton in Vidarbha has led to a spurt of farmer suicides.

Most suicide cases relate to those farming families which have run up huge debts because of the high cost in using the expensive genetically-modified cotton seeds, which have to be bought every year.

GM Watch comment:
This report comes in the same week as Indo-Swiss research showing India's organic cotton producers benefit from 40% lower input costs, up to 20% lower production costs, almost comparable labour costs, and higher cotton yields - all of which makes them far less vulnerable to loan sharks.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7087

+ INDIA'S AG MINISTER PAWAR UNLEASHES CORPORATIONS, IGNORES VICTIMS
Nobody should be more aware than India's Minister for Agriculture of the devastating nature of the country's current agrarian crisis. Sharad Pawar was formerly chief minister of the state at the very epicentre of the escalating farmer suicides wracking rural India, and Maharashtra still provides Pawar with his power base.

The critical role played by Bt cotton in the plague of suicides affecting India's debt-burdened farmers, has been identified repeatedly in articles from the New York Times to the Times of India. And the award-winning Rural Affairs editor of The Hindu, P Sainath, has described the promoting of Bt cotton in the dry and un-irrigated cotton-belt of Maharashtra as "murderous".

If so, India's Minister for Agriculture might be considered one of the murderers because Pawar was personally involved in promoting Bt cotton in Maharashtra, according to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a local pressure group for farmers. VJAS spokesman, Kishor Tiwari, also says that one of the brands of Bt seeds on sale - "Ajit Bt" - is actually owned by Pawar's nephew, Ajit Pawar. Pawar's associates in the state government have also had a big hand in pushing Bt cotton.

And despite the resulting carnage, Pawar's GM promotionals are still in full swing. He recently boasted to a corporate-backed conference on ag biotech that besides Bt cotton, there are lots more transgenic crops in India's "pi

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