THE WEEKLY WATCH number 41 (26/9/2003)

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH guest editor
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Dear all

Welcome to WW41 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.

This week's issue is a special on the results of the UK public debate on GM, which resulted in a smorgasbord of anti-GM articles from all sectors of the media. We've included excerpts from many of these. They make for an exhilarating read, as they show how hard it is to fool the public. One could almost feel proud to be British!

The GM lobby was thrown onto the back foot by the results, so much so that the best reply they could think of was claims such as that the more than million-member Women's Institute "hijacked" the debate, pointing to the "implacable" opposition of "middle-aged mothers"! The industry, of course, has considerable experience of fixing debates and discussions.
http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit_index.html

WW41 may be of particular interest to any friends or contacts finding it hard to keep up with all the breaking news, so please circulate widely.

Claire    [email protected]
www.ngin.org.uk

PS Look out for the CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK showing solidarity with Brazil where Lula appears to have succumbed to U.S. pressure.

***WEEKLY WATCH 40 - CLARIFICATION***
An alert subscriber has pointed out that our summary DANISH WATER CONTAMINATED BY ROUNDUP, BAN IMPOSED may have misled readers into believing that glyphosate has been totally banned in Denmark. This is not so, as the archived article at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1424
makes clear; there are many sorts of ban, and this ban is temporary and partial. From 15 September in Denmark, autumn spraying of glyphosates will be banned on sites where leaching is extensive because of heavy rain.

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CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
FACTS OF THE WEEK - all the latest problems with GM crops
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
*CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK* - solidarity with Brazil
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
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GM PUBLIC DEBATE GIVES PUBLIC RASPBERRY TO GM
The GM Nation? public debate in the UK found that just 2% of participants  were happy to eat GM food. What is perhaps of more interest is the finding that the better informed participants were about GM, the more sceptical they became.

"The GM Debate has given the loudest public raspberry conceivable to GM technology" was the conclusion of an article in the Independent. The article was one of many covering the overwhelmingly negative reaction to GM revealed by the results of the UK public debate. Below we reproduce one comprehensive article in full, followed by excerpts from other pieces on the topic.

HOW TO READ THE REPORT
http://www.gmnation.org.uk/ut_09/ut_9_6.htm
The findings of the public debate
Read the Executive summary
Download a PDF of the full report (266KB)
View supporting documents

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GM CROPS? NO THANKS
Britain delivers overwhelming verdict after unprecedented public opinion exercise
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=446787
The Independent, 25 September 2003
                
The title of the debate was "GM Nation?" But that is precisely what the British people do not want their country to be, according to the official report from the national consultation on genetically modified crops and food presented to the Government yesterday.
                  
The unprecedented test of public opinion, which over six weeks this summer involved 675 public meetings and elicited more than 36,000 written responses, revealed a deep hostility to GM technology across the population.
                  
Alongside fears that GM crops and food could be harmful to human health and the environment, the debate threw up widespread mistrust and suspicion of the motives of those taking decisions about GM - especially government and multi-national companies such as Monsanto.
                  
On a whole series of questions GM-hostile majorities were enormous, with 85 per cent saying GM crops would benefit producers not ordinary people, 86 per cent saying they were unhappy with the idea of eating GM food, 91 per cent saying they thought GM had potential negative effects on the environment, and no fewer than 93 per cent of respondents saying they thought GM technology was driven more by the pursuit of profit than the public interest. Figures in support of GM were, by contrast, tiny.
                  
Even special focus groups, deliberately selected from people who were uncommitted one way or another, to tease out the views of the "silent majority", and whose members were initially prepared to admit the technology might have benefits, opposed GM technology more the more they learnt about it, the report discloses.
                  
The extent and the unequivocal nature of the hostility revealed by "GM Nation?" will represent a substantial political hurdle to those who wish to bring the technology to Britain as soon as possible - led by Tony Blair and his Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, and the giant American and European agribusiness companies such as Monsanto and Bayer.
                  
Yesterday Mrs Beckett reaffirmed a promise that the Government would "listen" to the views the debate has highlighted and respond to them publicly, although she made no such pledge that it would take account of them in deciding its course of action.
                  
But that was what the Government had to do, said green groups, the organic agriculture movement and others sceptical of the values of GM, who warmly welcomed the report. "The Government will ignore this report at its peril," said Pete Riley, the GM campaigner for Friends of the Earth. "The public has made it clear that it doesn't want GM food and it doesn't want GM crops. There must not be any more weasel words from the Government on this issue."
                  
The umbrella body for the GM companies in Britain, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, rejected the report's findings, saying that "public meetings do not equal public opinion," although the ABC's chairman, Paul Rylott, had been a member of the debate steering group and issued no dissenting opinion in the report itself.
 


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