WEEKLY WATCH number 72 (13/5/2004)

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all,

We have another glorious victory this week as Monsanto has dropped plans to commercialise its Roundup Ready wheat globally (see our lead item below) and has pulled its GM canola project out of Australia. Meanwhile, support for GM in the Indian State of Andrha Pradesh has contributed to an electoral rout for the Chief Minister's Party.

This really is a week to celebrate and I urge you all not to let slip this new chance to point out to any doubting-Thomas friends ("I dunno why you bother, nothing makes any difference") that we HAVE made a difference and will continue to do so.

Last time I got this comment, I decided to go through every campaign I've ever been involved in, however peripherally. I realised we'd won every single one - eventually. Sometimes it took weeks, in one case fifteen years, with miserable setbacks along the way. But in the end, the people prevailed. It didn't have anything to do with any unusual expertise on our part, just the fact that we didn't give up. It's vital for our task of building a better world that more people wake up to - and take back - their power.

With Monsanto's withdrawal from wheat and the closure of many other biotech firms (see US), the question arises as to where the industry is headed. The answer at the moment seems to be that it is disappearing up its own oversized bottom in the form of endless inter-industry lawsuits (GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTS). It's one way of making a buck if no one wants to buy your products, but it's hardly sustainable in the long-term as without markets there won't be any more money to shake down.

You'll be tickled to hear that for the industry, the breaking news is so bad at the moment that Prakash's pro-GM AgBioView list is having terrible trouble finding suitable stories to spin. Many recent stories have been notable by their absence, or appear only days after they break and buried well down the list.

One indication of Prakash's desperation was seen in today's daily bulletin, which featured the story of the former James Bond star, Roger Moore, saying GM corn should be used for food aid in Zambia if farmers promised not to plant it.

"GM maize can be solution to Zambia's hunger", ran the headline over an article dated "May 13 2004". Anyone following the link given to this article would discover, however, that it was actually undated. http://english.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper1/720/class000100003/hwz95954.ht m In fact, this story is 2 years old! This can be seen on the Monsanto UK site where exactly the same article is reprodued "copyright 2002". http://www.monsanto.co.uk/news/ukshowlib.phtml?uid=6805 As we all know, Zambia stayed GM-free, fed its people and now has a surplus of non-GM corn.

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

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CONTENTS
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STORY OF THE WEEK: MONSANTO DROPS GM WHEAT
INDUSTRY: DOG DAYS & DOG FIGHTS!
NEW RESEARCH RAISES ALARM
INDIA, KENYA AND INDONESIA
AUSTRALIA: HARVEST OF OPPOSITION
NEW ZEALAND: HARVEST FEARS
UK, ITALY & ARGENTINA: LET'S CUT OUT GM FEED
OTHER NEWS
DONATIONS
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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STORY OF THE WEEK: MONSANTO DROPS GM WHEAT
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+ MONSANTO DROPS GM WHEAT - "WORLDWIDE VICTORY FOR CONSUMERS"
Monsanto, has announced that it is stopping all further efforts to commercialise its controversial GM wheat. Monsanto has faced worldwide opposition from farmers, food manufacturers and consumers.

Monsanto has failed to get GM crops approved for import or cultivation in the EU for the past six years because of consumer and farmer concerns about the safety of GMOs. It announced its withdrawal from GM wheat in the EU last year when the cereals division was put up for sale.

Major wheat buyers such as the Italian miller Grandi Molini have rejected GM wheat stating that "we will not only avoid buying GM wheat, but we will probably be forced to completely avoid importing from those countries/regions where it is known that GM wheat is grown." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3441


+ WHAT MONSANTO SAID...
... the company is deferring all further efforts to introduce Roundup Ready wheat, until such time that other wheat biotechnology traits are introduced. This decision was reached after a comprehensive review of Monsanto's research investment portfolio and extensive consultation with customers in the wheat industry.

"As a result of our portfolio review and dialogue with wheat industry leaders, we recognize the business opportunities with Roundup Ready spring wheat are less attractive relative to Monsanto's other commercial priorities," said Carl Casale, executive vice president of Monsanto. http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/investor/news&events/2004/05-10-04.a sp


+ WHAT THE MEDIA SAID
The story of Monsanto's retreat on GM wheat was reported around the world - see url below for links to individual articles.

There's wide coverage in the US where the Washington Post describes Monsanto's decision to scrap GM wheat as "the biggest defeat yet for advocates of agricultural biotechnology -- and a victory for skeptics who said the company was trying to foist on the world a crop it did not want or need." (url below)

The New York Times says the company is "bowing to the concerns of American farmers that the crop would endanger billions of dollars of exports". It says, "The announcement indicates how difficult it is becoming to introduce genetic engineering into new crops beyond the four that have been genetically engineered for years - canola, corn, cotton and soybeans."

The NYT also reports that shares in Monsanto fell by more than a dollar yesterday and that the GM wheat retreat is just the latest "retrenchment for Monsanto. A few years ago, it said it would confine its research mainly to four main crops... It dropped genetically modified potatoes after fast-food companies said that they would not buy them. Last year, Monsanto dropped plans to try to use genetically modified crops to produce pharmaceuticals."

The NYT notes that where GM crops are being grown this is only because they are largely going into animal feed or processing. Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology programs at the Center for Science in the Public Int


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