WEEKLY WATCH number 226
from WEEKLY WATCH editor, Claire Robinson
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Dear all:

There's good news from the US, where a major aid organization is refusing to play the US aid game. According to the usual practice, huge amounts of unwanted US (often unwanted GM) grains are dumped on poor countries, paid for by the taxpayer to the profit of US-based grain multinationals. The practice often undermines the food markets and agriculture of the recipient country. (THE AMERICAS)

Don't miss the two latest instalments in the extraordinary story of the attacks on GM Watch and GM-free Ireland by the Canadian government bureaucrat Shane Morris. (PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL)

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

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CONTENTS
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PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL - LATEST
EUROPE
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA

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PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL
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+ PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL
The GM Watch website was recently forced offline for nearly a week as a result of legal threats over this article calling for an award winning scientific paper to be retracted
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8216

Read our response to AgBioView's attack on GM Watch over the issue:

PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL - PART ONE
Showing the sheer hypocrisy of the attack
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8228

PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL - PART TWO
Showing there was no libel
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8240

**NEW THIS WEEK!** PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL - PART THREE
Showing why the research is indefensible
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8244

**NEW THIS WEEK!** PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL - PART FOUR
Showing what sort of public servant Shane Morris is
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8251

MORE ABOUT THE CONTROVERSY
Biotech Canada SLAPP Scandal
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BiotechCanadaSLAPPScandal.php

Canada attacks Ireland's policy on GM crops
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/index.php

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EUROPE
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+ GM QUARANTINE IN ROMANIA
In Romania, Greenpeace volunteers quarantined a whole island where GM soya crops are being grown, which is illegal under EU law. Vehicles leaving Braila island were hosed down by people wearing white biohazard suits to prevent genetic contamination spreading to the mainland. Even a donkey and cart were washed and made GM-free!

GM soya, maize and sunflowers are grown there and the harvest has just begun, so the campaigners in Romania wanted to stop any GM crops leaving the island and ending up in the food chain. Drivers were warned that they couldn't leave the island without passing through the decontamination station so there have been no reports of any soya-laden trucks trying to leave.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8252

+ ROMANIA - PLAYGROUND FOR THE GM INDUSTRY
The Romanian government has failed to ensure the control and traceability of GM soya plants produced by Monsanto, reports Greenpeace.

The cultivation of illegal crops (experiments with GM potatoes and plum trees, massive plantations of GM soya), the black market in GM seeds, the contamination of processing plants and the illegal GM food products on the market show that GM soya is out of control, even though its cultivation has been banned since 1 January 2007, when Romania joined the EU.

The 2006 plans of the ministry of agriculture were meant to phase out GM soya cultivation. In actual fact GM soya production reached a massive 130,000 hectares, almost double the amount planted in 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8254

+ BT CORN IS MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO APHIDS
A study shows that most of the GM maize lines tested against their conventional equivalents are more susceptible to aphids. The study was carried out by Cristina Faria and others, under the supervision of Ted Turlings, professor in chemical ecology at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland. Bizarrely, the researchers claim that the aphids might be a good thing in some areas, as their sticky secretions provide food for beneficial insects! Try telling that to farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8241

+ IRELAND: RESISTANCE TO GM CEREALS SLAMMED BY TEAGASC
A scientist from Teagasc, the Irish Government's Agriculture and Food Authority, has slammed the government's failure to support the use of GM cereals in animal feeds. Prof Jimmy Burke, who is head of the Crops Research Centre at Oak Park, claimed that the government's stance on GM crop varieties was undermining the viability of whole sectors within Irish agriculture.

"This policy is anti-competitive and doomed to failure. Only sourcing non-GM material is an unrealistic approach and we need to sit up and take notice of this," Prof Burke insisted.

Comment from GM-free