from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

This week, there's another important development from India, where the country's powerful rice industry lobby has joined anti-GM activists in petitioning the Supreme Court against GM contamination (ASIA).

And don't miss Bayer's outrageous attempt to shift the blame for the recent contamination of US rice supplies with its illegal crop (GM RICE CONTAMINATION).

Finally, please make sure that all your Dutch and German speaking friends know that, thanks to a fantastic team of translators, they can read what's happening in the global GM debate via Monthly Reviews in their own languages -
German: http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=82&page=1
Dutch: http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=81&page=1

We're now looking for volunteer translators to spread the inspiring news of global resistance in other languages, such as French, Portuguese and Spanish. If you'd like more information about this, we'd love to hear from you.

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

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CONTENTS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
RESEARCH
EUROPE
BIOTERRORISM
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
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+ BAYER BLAMES FARMERS AND GOD FOR RICE CONTAMINATION!
The company that created the experimental variety of GM rice found this summer to have contaminated the US rice supply contends that rice farmers and an "act of God" are to blame for the inadvertent release of the unapproved crop.

Those are among the assertions by Bayer CropScience in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of farmers in Arkansas and Missouri.

The 30-page response offers the first clue as to how the company plans to defend itself against the 15 class-action lawsuits filed by farmers, who allege that they stand to lose millions of dollars because of the contamination.

Lawyers for the farmers said they had expected the company to deny responsibility, but were offended by its attempt to blame farmers. The lawyers said their clients had no reason to suspect that the seeds they were planting in recent years were contaminated by Bayer's unapproved variety.

"The farmers are innocent victims," said Don Downing of Gray, Ritter and Graham PC, the St Louis firm that filed the largest suit, in US District Court in eastern Missouri.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7306

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ASIA
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+ WORLD'S LEADING RICE EXPORTERS COOPERATE ON PREVENTING USE OF GM RICE
The world's leading rice exporting countries, Thailand and Vietnam, have agreed to cooperate on preventing use of GM rice, Chukiat Opaswong, chairman of the Thai Rice Exporters Association said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7308

+ MAJOR NEW DEVELOPMENT IN CASE BEFORE SUPREME COURT
There has been a major new development in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought by Aruna Rodrigues and three co-petitioners before India's Supreme Court.

As previously reported, earlier this month the petitioners brought to the attention of the Court planned GM field trials involving Terminator-type genes that spread seed sterility.

Now, in a separate development, an Application has been filed in the Supreme Court by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters in India. This is not only a trade body recognised by the government of India but a major economic player.

The rice exporters' petition invokes the precautionary principle in line with the PIL, and like the PIL wants a moratorium to protect the rights of agriculturalists and consumers to grow and consume GM-free crops, to safeguard the interests of the nation and petitioner so that the export of rice doesn't suffer.

The Petition points out "that the release of GMOs into the environment resulting from field trials could result in the contamination of rice and affect the biodiversity in an irreversible and lasting manner as even a small percentage of 0.06%" has led to a total ban on affected rice imports by a number of countries.

They are also asking for: "Companies to put up bonds and also obtain insurance to cover the economic risks of such trials. The companies doing the trials should have to face to the full consequence of any contamination/leakage and all consequential losses."

U.S. rice farmers, millers and exporters would have been extremely glad to have had the protection of such a condition.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7310

+ RICE EXPORTERS WEIGH IN WITH ANTI-GM ACTIVISTS
India's science and environment magazine Down to Earth reports (EXCERPT):
... it isn't just anti-GM activists at the centre of the opposition to GM crops. India's rice exporters, who are a powerful lobby, have come out against GM rice... A farmer in Rampura village said the field [of GM rice] was burnt to protect the interest of the exporters. But the anti-GM campaigners are not complaining. They have managed to get a business interest to align with their ideo