from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

The highlight this week is a fascinating and very readable new report on how USAID sneaks 'Trojan Horse' GM crops into developing countries in order to open the doors to the big money US-grown GM crops (NEW REPORT: USAID'S TROJAN HORSE GM CROPS). It's well worth reading in full, as we only have space here for a taster.

We also have reports on new Japanese research that has put human genes in rice (HUMAN GENES IN RICE), some utterly disgusting stories from America about cruelty and recklessness involving GM animals (THE AMERICAS), and news of the latest attempt by idiots savants scientists to resurrect smallpox, this time in a GM incarnation (GM VIRUSES). As if we don't have enough bizarre new illnesses to worry about!

Don't miss an important CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK, guaranteed to make your blood boil.

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

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CONTENTS
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NEW REPORT: USAID'S TROJAN HORSE GM CROPS
LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
HUMAN GENES IN RICE
NEW POPE
GM VIRUSES
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

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NEW REPORT: USAID'S TROJAN HORSE GM CROPS
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+ USAID: MAKING THE WORLD HUNGRY FOR GM CROPS
An excellent new report from GRAIN shows how the biotech industry uses taxpayers' money to develop 'Trojan Horse' GM crops, ostensibly to promote sustainable agriculture in the developing world but really to open the doors to US-originated GM crops.

The method seems to be roughly as follows.

STEP 1: The industry gets a public research body to develop the Trojan Horse crop with public funding. (Often, this body is USAID via its Agricultural Biotechnology for Sustainable Productivity project, later renamed as the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP))

STEP 2: The industry and its public research body/USAID/ABSP allies use field test requirements for that crop as an excuse to go into the targeted developing nation, develop biotech research institutes there, put puppet scientists in place, and draft 'biosafety' legislation.

STEP 3: The infrastructure put in place during STEP 2 now allows the big-money US GM crops and seeds to be imported.

STEP 4: The Trojan Horse crop in question almost invariably disappears without trace, because it is a dud product or because there is no market for it (often both). But the biotech industry doesn't care, because that crop was never the point in the first place.

EXCERPT from GRAIN report on Trojan Horse crop no 1, GM sweet potato for Kenya, developed by Monsanto with public research body KARI (Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute):

Here was a company "donating" its technology to African scientists in order to improve a subsistence crop in which it clearly had no financial interest. Most important, though, was getting the relevant regulations on GM implemented. Before you can commercialise GM sweet potatoes, you have to field-test them, and for this you need regulations, or so the argument goes.

The project thereby provides a way to side-step the larger question of whether there should be any introduction of GM crops, and the critical questions about the merits and risks of the GM crop in question, and of proceeding to the technical matter of how to "manage risk" in field tests. Who cares if the GM sweet potatoes actually work; what matters is that Kenya and other countries become places where Monsanto can sell its GM seeds and have its patents enforced.

Whatever the fate of GM sweet potato, what is certain is that Monsanto now has the green light to start field trials of its Bt cotton in Kenya.

EXCERPT from GRAIN report on Trojan Horse crop no 2, Bt potato for Egypt, developed by USAID's ABSP:

Despite the failure to develop a feasible GM crop for Egypt, ABSP saw its work in the country as a success. According to one ABSP official: "Having policy decisions driven by technologies of national importance and practical experience results in development of regulatory frameworks that are more implementable and permissive towards technology development and deployment. The [Bt potato] project was successful in building capacity in policy and regulatory issues surrounding the use of this technology that will facilitate entry of other agricultural biotechnology products into Egypt."

In reality, these "other biotechnology products" boil down to GM varieties from US corporations. The GM crop with the best chance of making it to Egyptian farms is Monsanto's Bt cotton, and, if it does, Monsanto will have ABSP to thank. On top of its Trojan horse GM projects, ABSP intervened directly to keep Egypt's GM regulations "permissive".

GRAIN report, "Making the world hungry for GM crops", is well worth reading in full at
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=191 (version with tables) or
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5157
Press release at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5158
THIS IS A MUST-READ REPORT.

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ SYNGENTA'S PATENTS ON 'HUMANITARIAN' GOLDEN RICE
Sygenta has spent the last five years trying to develop a magic rice seed that they claim will cure blindness and eradicate malnutrition across the world. While claiming that the development of Golden Rice was not a commercial but a humanitarian venture, they quietly applied to patent it in over 100 countries! Syngenta's patents would apply even in developing countries, although it has claimed the seed will be provided for free. So why patent it?

"Anyone applying for patents wants to make money from them," says Greenpeace's Christoph Then. "Syngenta seems to have problems with the truth in general. The company also kept secret the recent scandal involving unauthorised varieties of genetically manipulated corn [see EUROPE]. The patent claims now discovered show the true face of a company that wants to ensure it has monopolistic rights over plant-breeding, agriculture and food production, without concern for the dangers to people and the environment."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5164

+ MONSANTO'S BLACK-WASHERS TAKE EXXONMOBIL'S GOLD
Anyone who read Jonathan Matthews' recent article - "The Uncle Tom Award" - about Monsanto's black-washing activities will be familiar with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and their policy advisor Paul Driessen.

But it's not just Monsanto who fund CORE and find a bit of black-washing desirable. ExxonMobil also would like to counter the perception that its products and policies are an assault on poor people of colour.

In fact, CORE and Driessen are as active in denying global warming as they are in promoting GM crops. On global warming their stance is to hell with the scientific consensus. On the GM issue, by contrast, they claim the critics should bow down and accept the views of the biotech establishment.

Also notable among the spin-studded cast in two articles from Mother Jones (www.motherjones.com) on global warming are the Competitive Enterprise Institute (who co-founded CS Prakash's pro-GM AgBioWorld campaign), Tech CentralStation, the "Junkman" Steve Milloy, and the American Enterprise Institute. All GM enthusiasts to a man - and ALL PROFILED at http://www.lobbywatch.org
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5156

+ SCHMEISER EXPOSES INDUSTRY SPIN
Accor