from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

This week there's an important cyberaction to ask Brazil's President Lula not to block GM food labeling at the upcoming meeting in Brazil on the Biosafety Protocol (THE AMERICAS).

Meanwhile, Britain ('perfidious Albion') is cheering along the almost universally hated Terminator technology (TERMINATOR). From India, we have some intelligent analysis of the disastrous new Indo-US farm pact (ASIA).

Finally, some excellent news - a large majority of EU ministers have demanded changes in the way decisions are made on the approval of new GM crops, including tougher scientific assessments. Current assessments, they say, are neither adequate nor independent (EUROPE).

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

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CONTENTS
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
ASIA
RESEARCH
LOBBYWATCH
CONTAMINATION REPORT
CHURCHES
TERMINATOR

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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+ SEEDS OF DEATH
"More than 40,000 farmers have committed suicide over the past decade in India -- although the more accurate term would be homicide, or genocide. More than 90 percent of farmers who committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Vidharbha in the 2005 cotton season had planted Bt cotton." - Dr Vandana Shiva
http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=32438

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THE AMERICAS
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+ IMPORTANT CYBERACTION: LETTER TO LULA
Two important conferences are coming up: the 8th meeting of the 188 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity from 20-31 March (COP-8) and the 3rd meeting of the 132 Parties to the supplementary Biosafety Protocol, also known as the Cartagena Protocol (MOP-3) from 13 to 17 March, both to take place in Curitiba, Brazil.

During this 3rd Meeting, the Protocol member states will finally have to decide on methods of identification and documentation for all international shipments of GMOs.

Just a few days remain before the meeting, but the Brazilian government has not yet disclosed its position. This is worrisome, especially considering that, at the second meeting of the Parties, Brazil, together only with New Zealand, stood in the way of international consensus.

Action: Please send letters to President Lula and his ministers urging them not to stand in the way of meaningful identification and labelling of GMOs for food, feed and processing. Spread as widely and as fast as possible.

ENGLISH Direct link to the cyber-action:
http://www.greenpeace.org.br/biosseguranca/?lang=en&ref=GPI

PORTUGUESE Direct link to the cyber-action:
http://www.greenpeace.org.br/biosseguranca/?lang=pt&ref=GPI
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6314

+ PRO-GM LOBBYISTS OUT IN FORCE AT MOP-3
As usual, pro-biotech lobby groups will be out in force for the upcoming meetings in Curitiba, Brazil, of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-8) from 20-31 March and the supplementary Biosafety Protocol, also known as the Cartagena Protocol (MOP-3), from 13 to 17 March.

The biggest lobby group will be the International Grains Council but at least delegates will know who the IGC and its constituent bodies represent. Much more insidious are lobby groups like the Public Research and Regulation Initiative - a pro-GM lobby which will be fielding over 40 representatives, mostly picked from the developing world and trained and scripted by PRRI, to promote identical goals to those of the industry.

Also active at these events is the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) which will once again be showing its Monsanto-backed film on GM, "Voices from Africa", on the 16th. Anyone going to MOP-3 should be encouraged to read a background article, "The Uncle Tom Award", by GM WATCH's Jonathan Matthews, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6319

+ IMPORTANT BRIEFING ON MOP-3
An important briefing by Lim Li Lin of the Third World Network for the 3rd Meeting of the Parties (MOP-3) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6320

+ MONSANTO'S WACKOES AT IT AGAIN?
Harry Cline of Western Farm Press writes on the pro-corporate Truthabouttrade website: "The environmental wackoes are at it again. The same old group of warm and fuzzy-sounding organizations have filed suit in federal court in northern California demanding the government rescind its approval of herbicide-resistant alfalfa. The Center for Food Safety, Sierra Club, the Cornucopia Institute and others of similar ilk want to toss out at least two decades of research and years of field trials." - and more in that vein.

Cline makes no mention of the farmers involved in the lawsuit and nor - ironically - has he made any attempt to inquire into the background of the sources he's used for this supposed expose of the "environmental wackoes".

His main source is ActivistCash.com which is, in reality, part of the internet PR campaign run by Rick Berman's Washington DC firm, Berman & Co