from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all

This week's theme is coexistence of GM with non-GM crops, otherwise known as GM contamination of non-GM crops, depending on which side of the fence you stand on.

Coexistence is the industry's new buzzword in its attempts to foist GM crops on the world. It usually appears with such democratic-sounding terms as "farmer choice" and "consumer choice", ignoring the fact that the overwhelming majority of people who don't want to eat GM foods will be deprived of the ability to choose if GM cultivation is allowed.

Our ASIA section this week shows how coexistence is being promoted as the way forward for India's agriculture. It's implied that segregation is not only possible but relatively easy.

Yet findings from the recently completed UK's 'BRIGHT' research project (in spite of the positive spin that's being put on it) point to problems with gene flow between different GM crops, and between GM and non-GM crops, meaning that segregation is not possible (see EUROPE).

This would seem to be confirmed by developments in the USA, where seed companies and the University of California mistakenly supplied GM tomato and grass seeds to scientists around the world wanting non-GM seeds (see THE AMERICAS).

If coexistence and segregation were as easy as the industry wants us to think, why is it complaining so loudly about the strict new law just passed in Germany making GM growers liable for GM contamination?

"This law is going to have dramatic consequences," says one industry body executive. "Planting GM crops in Germany is now an economic risk. Simply an economic risk."

It always was, but in Germany it will be a direct risk to the perpetrators and boy, are they bellyaching!

In contrast, here's the kind of thing they're keen to tell us when they don't have to put their money where their mouth is: "OK, we know that cross-pollination will occur but we've got thirty years of experience to say we know how far pollen will travel. And therefore what we've done is we'll grow a GM crop at a distance away from a non-GM crop, so the people that want non-GM can buy non-GM, and the people that want GM can buy GM. The two will not get mixed up. Everybody will have the right to choose." http://www.lobbywatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=23&page=1&op=2

Don't miss two important stories on the abysmal record of the US FDA, which is supposed to regulate GM foods, in overlooking dangers to the public from dangerous and experimental drugs. In the land of the free, it seems that "lethal" drugs are being forcibly given to children without parents' consent (see THE AMERICAS).

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

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CONTENTS
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SICK JOKES OF THE WEEK
EUROPE
ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS - REGULATORY BREAKDOWN
COMPANY NEWS
LOBBYWATCH
FOOD AID
CATHOLIC CHURCH LATEST
GENETICS THEORY
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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SICK JOKES OF THE WEEK
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+ SICK JOKE OF THE WEEK No. 1:
South Australia's Agricultural Minister claimed this week that the biggest danger arising from GM crop trials is the terrible risk of non-GM contamination! He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, "The biggest risk to people like Bayer CropScience would be cross contamination the other way - imagine one of their crops has been cross contaminated by pollination and the genetic material put at risk, these companies are not going to expose these significant investments to any contamination"!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4687

+ SICK JOKE No. 2 - SUPPORT THE GREAT DECEIVER!
CS Prakash and his AgBioView campaign appear to be astroturfing GM Watch's current financial appeal!! "The AgBioWorld Foundation needs support from its AgBioView readers," Prakash claims. Of course, Prakash &Co. may be genuinely short of cash but given that our research has exposed the extraordinary level of support that they've previously enjoyed from Monsanto's PR operatives, it's rather hard to credit!!

For more on this, see our Pants on Fire Award: CS Prakash - THE GREAT DECEIVER: http://www.lobbywatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=55&page=1&op=2
Excerpt: "CS Prakash speaks Monsanto's script just as readily as Monsanto's own fake persona. He is the mannequin in Monsanto's virtual shopwindow and one who seems prepared to go anywhere and say or do almost anything to promote the interests of the US biotech industry."

If you'd like to oppose what AgBiasedView do, please support THE REAL DEAL - the GM WATCH APPEAL! Details of how to:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4618

And many thanks to those of you who've already donated. This bulletin would not be here without your support.

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EUROPE
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+ SYNGENTA PULLS GM OUT OF EUROPE! - LOOKING MORE TO CONVENTIONAL BREEDING
Syngenta, the world biggest agrochemicals group based in Basel, Switzerland, has halted all its European field trials of GM plants and seed material varieties.

Syngenta's research director David Lawrence claimed that Syngenta had no intention of quitting genetic engineering altogether. But the group had placed all its projects on ice in Europe because of public resistance, high authorization hurdles and the lack of market opportunities. The entire biotech research function is being transferred to the USA.

Syngenta has now followed in the footsteps of Monsanto, Du Pont and Bayer Crop Science which have all abandoned their biotechnology activities in England. Not one field trial has been registered in Great Britain this year and Germany is well on the way to finding itself in a similar situation. In Germany, the European Commission still reports five field tests planned by various companies and research establishments. The largest number of field trials is scheduled in Spain. Applications for nine projects are still pending in that country.

Syngenta's research director, David Lawrence, pointed out that Syngenta had often found conventional methods to be more effective than GM. "We have conducted many genetic engineering experiments for seed materials and plant protection and they have often failed." On the other hand, excellent results had frequently been achieved with the traditional approach to plant growing.

A new picnic-sized conventionally bred melon, with a market launch in Europe scheduled for 2005 and the already on sale in the USA, "points the way in which the business is thinking".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4680

+ EUROPE VOTES TO KEEP GM CROP BANS
Europe's member states voted on 29 November against proposals to overturn the bans of GM crops in five countries. The pro-GM position of the European Commission, who tabled the vote, has been described by Friends of the Earth as "deeply unpopular and clearly undemocratic".

Each of the Commission's proposals, calling on countries to repeal their bans within 20 days, failed to get the required "qualified majority" of 232 votes out of 321. For some of the bans the Commission narrowly escaped a qualified majority against them. The proposals will now go to a Council of Ministers meeting in the new year.

The Commission's proposals are seen as a direct result of the trade dispute in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) started last year by the US, Argentina and