GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 49 =====================================================
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FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
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Don't forget to tell all your non-English speaking friends that our past Monthly Reviews are now available in Portuguese, Dutch and German at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=93&page=1

If you could help translate into any other languages, or would like to join our existing teams of volunteer translators, we'd love to hear from you! All our existing translators are listed here.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=2&page=1

Finally, a very big thank you to all of you who've expressed support and solidarity during the recent attacks on GM Watch. (see PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL)

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

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL
NATURE BIOTECH SCANDAL
RESISTANCE/BANS/RESTRICTIONS ON GM
GM APPLICATIONS/EXPANSION/APPROVALS
REGULATION
CONTAMINATION
GM FAILURES
GLYPHOSATE RESISTANCE
BIOFUELS
COMPANY NEWS
DUBIOUS PHILANTHROPY
GM RISKS
ORGANICS
GM HYPE
NEW BOOK

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PROPAGANDA, FRAUD AND LIBEL
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+ AWARD-WINNING PAPER "A FLAGRANT FRAUD" - CAMBRIDGE EXPERT
The famous satirical magazine Private Eye, which is well known for its fearless investigative reporting, has published an excellent article on the recent "Heavy-handed libel threats" against GM Watch's web host by biotech propagandist Shane Morris. Morris made scientific history by co-authoring an award-winning science paper that purported to show that consumers preferred GM sweetcorn to non-GM. The Eye reports, "Alas, the paper did not disclose that above the non-GM corn was a sign asking shoppers: 'Would you eat wormy sweetcorn?', while the GM crop was signed: 'quality sweetcorn'."

Morris's initial complaint against GM Watch was over our use of the "f" word in our article on Morris's paper, which we entitled "Award for a Fraud". We removed the "f" word from our website as it seemed the quickest way to get our site back on line after our web host took it down in response to Morris's claims of "defamation".

But Dr Richard Jennings, a leading expert on research ethics at Cambridge University, makes it clear in the Eye article that in his view the "f" word was entirely appropriate. The article quotes Dr Jennings as saying the paper should have been withdrawn. He adds, "The case is a flagrant fraud as far as I see it. It was a sin of omission by failing to divulge information which quite clearly should have been disclosed." But as the Eye comments, "if the researchers had disclosed the wormy corn labels, would any respected scientific journal have published it?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8314

Background to the story:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8216
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8228
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8240
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8244
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8251
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BiotechCanadaSLAPPScandal.php
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/index.php

+ WORMY CORN SCIENTISTS' CLAIMS "UNTRUE", EXPERT CONCLUDES
A computer scientist at the University of New South Wales has analysed pictures that Shane Morris claims prove that the controversial "Would you eat wormy sweet corn?" sign - placed above the bin of non-GM corn during the study he co-authored with Doug Powell and others - was taken down early on in the research. The expert concludes that the pictures show the wormy corn sign was never taken down, i.e. the exact opposite of what Morris claims. He writes, "I think that science would have been better served if Powell and Morris had acknowledged the flaws in their study rather than making untrue statements about the 'wormy corn' sign being removed."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8259

Check out the pictures.
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/09/would_you_eat_wormy_sweet_corn.php

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NATURE BIOTECH SCANDAL
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+ NATURE BIOTECH'S "PROFESSIONAL MALPRACTICE"
GM Free Cymru has written an open letter of protest to Andrew Marshall, editor of Nature Biotechnology, over the journal's alleged connivance in a campaign of vilification against the scientist Dr Irina Ermakova. Dr Ermakova's research found ill effects in rats fed GM soy.

The letter asks Andrew Marshall:
Was it through a technical oversight that you allowed four of the best-known apologists for the GM industry to have "free space" in the pages of "Nature Biotechnology" for a premeditated attack on Dr Ermakova, whose findings they happened to find distasteful? ...that you connived with them to induce Dr Ermakova to outline her findings in response to your questions, and then to publish their not-attributed responses? ...that Dr Ermakova was never told the names of the four men who were out to destroy her reputation, and was never