THE WEEKLY WATCH number 68 (15/4/2004)

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all,

Another victory this week! Well done all those who asked California Governor "Arnie" and other officials to terminate Ventria's GM pharma rice (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL). Your efforts have paid off and the rice will not be grown - for this season at least. Let's hope, unlike the Terminator, it won't be back!

Please keep the momentum going by saying no to GM wheat - see our very important CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK.

Well worth reading is an article from the avidly pro-GM New Scientist, which details the tragic story of Argentina's economic and ecological meltdown as a result of the country's widespread adoption of GM soya (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL).

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

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CONTENTS
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL
INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK: DR MAEWAN HO
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - SAY NO TO GM WHEAT
DONATIONS
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK
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+ PROF HILLMAN BLASTS ORGANICS - AGAIN!
Prof John Hillman, director of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, is quoted in an article in the obliging Scotsman newspaper attacking organic farming and hyping the benefits of GM and chemical agriculture. What's more, he has used the SCRI's annual report to promote his views. And it's not the first time Hillman's pulled exactly the same trick.

According to Hillman's startlingly asymmetrical analysis, organic farming has no benefits but multiple problems and risks. It means low productivity, a high dependence on poisonous copper salts, blemished crops, the risk of mycotoxins and reduced vitamin C levels, reliance on faecal fertilisers, raising concerns about food-poisoning, eggs of parasitic nematodes and pollution of water-courses; and reliance on tilling leading to soil structure damage and release of greenhouse gases. Any benefits, he says, "cannot be validated" while its marketing is based on criticism and scaremongering. Furthermore, it has high production costs and cannot meet the increasing demand of global food supply without encroaching on natural habitats.

By contrast, GM crops, he says, "encompass strategies to control pests, weeds and diseases; by, for example, eliminating allergens and anti-nutritional factors they can modify shape, colour, size, aroma, texture, taste and yield; can generate, at low capital cost, pathogen-free, high-value, nutraceuticals, vaccines, antibiotics, enzymes and growth factors; engineer plants to treat wastes and contaminated land; produce industrial feedstocks from specialist proteins; and create renewable sources of energy".

Find out more about Prof Hillman and his total failure to provide the evidence to back up his Dennis Avery style smears. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3276

+ HIGHLANDS DECLARED FREE OF GM CROPS
Councillors voted on 15 April to make the Highlands the first area in Scotland to be declared free of GM crops. The decision by the Highland Council means the region will join Wales, Tuscany, the Basque Country and Upper Austria in the European network of GM free areas, which aim to protect the future of traditional and organic farming. Expect lots more parts of the UK, which have already voted in favour of staying GM free, joining this pan-European alliance.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL
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+ SEED GIANTS ACCUSED OF SABOTAGE
Kenyans have been urged to be wary of the activities of multinational seed companies. A former manager of Kenya Seed Company, Mr Michael Rono, said some of the problems facing the agricultural sector have their roots in the quest by the multinational firms to penetrate the Kenyan market.

Rono said the multi-nationals have particularly been keen on introducing GMO seeds into the Kenyan market and urged the government to be on the alert over their activities. "They will not rest until the have wrestled the Kenyan market from KSC," said Rono, the firm's former marketing and processing manager.

Reacting to last weekend's inferno that razed down the Kenya Seed's administration block, Rono said investigations into the fire should be widened to include the multinationals. In the meantime, he said, the Government should establish strict security measures at Kenya Seed and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) where the firm's seeds are produced.

He was particularly emphatic that Kenya Seed's Elgon Downs, where the country's strategic seed reserves are kept should be heavily guarded. http://allafrica.com/stories/200404150342.html

+ ARGENTINA'S BITTER HARVEST - NEW SCIENTIST
New Scientist has an excellent article in its current edition, "Argentina's bitter harvest: Genetically modified soya promised so much for hard-pressed farmers. Now it has all gone horribly wrong". The accompanying editorial struggles to maintain the magazine's pro-GM line. It extracts some comfort from its disturbing report by declaring it's not the technology's fault things have gone horribly wrong. The technology is simply being "mishandled" by farmers! Oddly, however, New Scientist's editor presents no evidence that farmers are doing anything other than what was intended by the biotech companies.

In a spin-off article on the front page of the Daily Mail, Colin Merritt, biotechnology manager for Monsanto, which markets Roundup Ready soya, said it had been an "exemplary success" in South America, both environmentally and economically! Read on and see if you agree.

Excerpts from the New Scientist article:

When genetically modified soya came on the scene it seemed like a heaven-sent solution to Argentina's agricultural problems. Now soya is being blamed for an environmental crisis that is threatening the country's tragile economic recovery. Sue Branford discovers how it all went wrong

A year ago,


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