GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 34 (9/7/2006)

Claire Robinson, editor

Lots of great news!

------------------------------------------------------------
MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------

TOP OF THE PODS
NEWS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
LOBBYWATCH
GM HYPE
CONTAMINATION
PROTESTS AND RESISTANCE
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD SAFETY & HEALTH
RESEARCH
SETBACKS FOR THE GM INDUSTRY
GM APPROVALS
GOVERNMENT SLEAZE
WORLD BANK
BIOTECH, FREE TRADE, AND INVESTMENT
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF GOVERNMENT
PATENTS ON LIFE
BIOFUELS
GM MEDICINES / GENE THERAPY
CHURCHES

------------------------------------------------------------
TOP OF THE PODS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ TOP OF THE PODS
GM Watch has had a great response to our new podcasts: audiofiles with topical interviews and background reports on GM issues.

They can be easily downloaded to your computer or audio player for you to listen to when and where you want.

You can download individual podcasts, or subscribe to them via iTunes and have new podcasts download to your device automatically as they become available.

Via iTunes:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=80&page=1

Or listen on your computer (eg with QuickTime / having some problems with Windows Media Player) via indymedia:
http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/07/5183.shtml

+ PODS TO DATE
02 July 2006 - How pro-GM lobbyists fix the media
25 June 2006 - Illegal GM crops in Brazil and China
19 June 2006 - GM pharma crops; Monsanto's GM rBGH
11 June 2006 - Feeding the world and biotech PR; Doubts about drugs
5 June 2006 - GM Cotton; Worrying new research on GM Corn
1 June 2006 - Watching GM around the world

------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM WATCH IN DUTCH
Nieuws in het Nederlands
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=81&page=1

+ GM WATCH IN GERMAN
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=82&page=1

+ GM WATCH IN OTHER LANGUAGES?
After the success of the translations into Dutch and German, we're looking for volunteer translators to help get the news into Portuguese, Spanish, French etc. Please get in touch:
[email protected]

------------------------------------------------------------
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ INDIAN STATE SAYS "NO!" TO GM SEEDS
The chief minister of the Indian state of Uttaranchal said that there would be no permission given to GM seeds in the state. Tiwari cited the need to protect the image of the state as a producer of organic food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6655

+ MISSOURI "PRE-EMPTION" BILL PUSHED BACK BY FARMERS
A bill that would have prohibited the state of Missouri from enacting any seed regulation exceeding federal requirements has been pulled from consideration in the Missouri legislature, under pressure from farmers.

The ceding of local control over crops planted - "pre-emption language" is the term favoured by proponents - isn't just happening in Missouri. More than 10 state legislatures have passed similar bills.

Missouri's Bootheel rice farmers had their antennae up because just last year a crisis erupted when GM pharmaceutical rice was to be planted near commercial rice fields. Plans to grow the pharma rice were scuttled only after beer giant Anheuser Busch threatened to stop buying the rice.

"If (the bill) had passed, we'd have had no say about what could, or couldn't, be planted," says Sonny Martin, a Bootheel rice producer and chairman of the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6618

+ SANTA CRUZ OK'S BAN ON GM CROPS
Supervisors of Santa Cruz County, California have unanimously approved a moratorium on growing GM crops in the county.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6664 http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6620

+ BASF BOSS SAYS "GET OUT OF THE EU"!
Hans Kast, chairman of industry group EuropaBio and CEO of the GM corporation BASF, says European countries which want to be GM-free "should not be in the EU".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6601

+ EUROPE HAS LITTLE GM CORN
A report in a German newspaper says the area sown with GM crops in Germany is "minuscule". Half of the applications submitted to the Central Registry have been withdrawn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6616

------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
------------------------------------------------------------

+ THE MYTH OF THE "INDEPENDENT EXPERTS" WHO SUPPORT GM
Here are some excellent examples of how pro-GM lobbyists manage to pass themselves off as either independent experts, when they're not, or as a large body of scient


Print

Back to the Archive