WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 142 (25/9/2005)

from Claire Robinson, editor
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Dear all:

A new report reveals how Bt cotton is marketed in India on the basis of lies so blatant that they would be funny if they didn't have such tragic consequences (ASIA).

In Europe and Australia, a chorus of industry-generated propaganda is chanting the latest line on why we have to accept GM: it's too expensive to avoid it! If there is any truth in this claim, then the bill must be paid by those who caused the problem - the industry (AUSTRALASIA; LOBBYWATCH).

Finally, 'scientists' in America have managed to lose three bubonic plague-infected GM mice but - guess what? - there's no need to worry (THE OTHER TERRORISTS).

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

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CONTENTS
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ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
WTO
THE OTHER TERRORISTS
RESEARCH
COMPANY NEWS
B-LIAR

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ASIA
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+ PHILIPPINES: FARMERS UPROOT BT CORN
Backed by the municipal government, 15 Philippines farmers have decontaminated a farm planted to GM Bt corn. The farmers were upholding a provincial ban on GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5735

+ INDIA: FARMERS DEMAND BAN ON BT COTTON
Leading farmers' organisations have demanded a ban on Bt cotton and a moratorium on any further approval of GM crops for commercial cultivation. Among the organisations to call for a ban is the farmers' organisation of the ruling Congress Party (BKS).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5762

+ INDIA: BT COTTON MARKETED ON LIES
A new report, "The Marketing of Bt cotton in India: Aggressive, Unscrupulous and False", explodes Monsanto's claims that its achieving higher Bt cotton seed sales in India off the back of the success of its scientifically-based technology.

Investigations reveal a very different story. The report shows that Monsanto's Indian subsidiary, Monsanto-Mahyco, and its sub-licensee Bt Cotton seed companies, have been pulling every dirty trick in the PR book in order to lure India's poor farmers into using GM cotton.

Quite apart from chronicling the use of everything from Bollywood stars to dancing girls to hype Bt cotton, here are just a few of the outright lies the report exposes.

FAKE FARMERS: Posters in Madhya Pradesh featured a farmer who claimed to have gained great benefits from using Bt Cotton seed. He turned out to be a vendor of betel leaves and cigarettes who had never grown Bt cotton in his life!

FAKE YIELDS: Other posters featured Ravinder Narain, a farmer who was said to have obtained a yield of 20 quintals per acre of Bt Cotton. Investigations revealed Narain got only 5 quintals per acre. He is disgusted that the company is misusing the photos they took of him.

FAKE BENEFITS: A farmer called Pyarelal Patidaar is also unhappy with the fact his photo appears on posters extolling the virtues of Bt Cotton - "I said do not put my photo because I do not think that Bt Cotton is better than other varieties - however, they did not listen to me", he explains.

Another farmer was featured proudly displaying a tractor on a poster that suggested that he had been able to buy it after using Bt Cotton. He says that with the yields he got from Bt Cotton, "I would not be able to buy even two tractor tyres", let alone the tractor he bought with a private loan.

This picture appears on a poster called "TRUE STORIES OF FARMERS WHO HAVE SOWN BT COTTON"!

The report (incl. pics) can be downloaded online:
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/marketing-of-bt-cotton-in-indi
For GM Watch's summary of the report, see:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5741

+ INDIA: OUTSOURCING RISK!
Dr Vandana Shiva points out how at a time when the negative experience with GM crops in India should be leading to a strengthening of biosafety regulation, the Government's strategy is calling for a total deregulation of biotechnology.

"This is a strategy to avoid risk assessment; and hence a strategy for deregulation of the biotechnology industry in India and outsourcing genetic pollution and health risks to India's ecosystem and the Indian public."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5764

+ HALT DANGEROUS GM RICE TRIAL, SAY SCIENTISTS
The Independent Science Panel has written a letter to the Niigata Prefecture in Japan in support of the concerns of the senior Japanese microbiologist Dr. Takahiro Kanagawa and of the legal action taken by 12 Japanese farmers seeking to halt the trial of GM rice producing anti-microbial peptides.

The ISP warns: "Anti-microbial peptides provide the first line of defence against invading microbes in both plants and animals... The evolution of resistance to antimicrobial peptides will severely compromise both the natural defence of the human immune system against disease and the possibilities of effective therapies emerging in the wake of the disaster of widespread antibiotic resistance. As versions of the peptides also provide defence against pathogens in other animals and plants, the ecological impact of resistant pathogens could be devastating."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5744

+ BRUTAL ATTACK ON PEASANT FARMERS BY INDONESIAN MILITARY
On 18 September, Indonesian police forces violently dispersed a peaceful gathering of about 1000 peasants in Tanah Awuk village in central Lombok, Indonesia. For a report on what occurred:
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