from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all

Welcome to WW55 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.

I'm delighted to report that the Canadian government appears to have finally admitted that GM wheat is a dead duck and has pulled the plug on its development, which it had undertaken in partnership with Monsanto (SETBACKS).

Less joyful is the news that Blair's government seems determined to push ahead with GM maize commercialisation in Britain, based on a report from the dismal and compromised advisory body, ACRE (HIGHLIGHTS).

We have some interesting reports on the industry's drive to push GM in Africa (FOCUS ON AFRICA). It seems the US government aid organisation USAID is "helping" African countries to draft GM regulations! Other players in this desperate and morally bereft attempt to recoup investment in GM include the Monsanto-trained scientist Florence Wambugu and the British government's Department for International Development (DFID), whose former head has now gone to work for Syngenta.

Claire    [email protected]
http://www.gmwatch.org/

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CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
FOCUS ON AFRICA: THE NEW FRONTIER FOR THE GM INDUSTRY
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
RESOURCE OF THE WEEK
EVENT OF THE WEEK
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
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+ CANADIAN GOVT SHELVES GM WHEAT
Agriculture Canada is abandoning a long-running project involving the GM wheat it developed with biotech giant Monsanto, amid doubts about how well the product would sell. The AgCan decision suggests that scientific hopes for the first strain of biotech wheat may be dimming. Jim Bole of the government body Agriculture Canada said the biotech revolution in agriculture has not lived up to expectations: "I'm afraid it was oversold."

The AgCan-Monsanto contract is confidential, but Bole said the company invested $1.3 million while the department invested $500,000. Monsanto spokeswoman Trish Jordan said Monsanto still hopes to commercialise Roundup Ready wheat, but will not do anything to jeopardize Canada's wheat markets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2274

+ ORGANIC FARMING COUNTERS GLOBAL WARMING
Our thanks to an alert subscriber who told us of a report on Farming Today (12 Jan 2004) on research showing that organic farming is better than other methods of agriculture at retaining carbon in the soil and thus combating greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Former environment minister Michael Meacher told the Soil Association's recent annual conference in Edinburgh that the government must boost organics to help Britain meet its target under the Kyoto treaty. He highlighted results from 23 years of research at the Rodale Institute in the United States comparing conventional with organic farming. Rodale scientists found that soluble nitrogen fertilisers in conventional farming destroyed the soil bugs that trap greenhouse gases.

Information about the Rodale trials is at:
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/1003/carbonsequest.shtml

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FOCUS ON AFRICA: THE NEW FRONTIER FOR THE GM INDUSTRY
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+ PUSHING GM IN AFRICA:

1. USAID (US Agency for International Development)
In the face of continued resistance to GM in Europe, the US and the GE industry are pursuing a well-orchestrated strategy in Africa to lower resistance to GE and gain acceptance of the technology, according to a report by Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety in South Africa. Mayet's article tells how the US government aid organisation USAID is working to push GM into African countries by developing weak regulations under the guise of biosafety assistance.

She writes, "USAID's Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) has established a partnership with seven Southern African Development Community countries - Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - to... provide technical training in biosafety regulatory implementation. Its ostensible goal is to promote conformity with the science-based standards of the World Trade Organisation's Sanitary and Phyotosanitary agreement and the Biosafety Protocol. Needless to say, taking into account the US's WTO challenge of the European Union's de facto moratorium on GMOs, it is anticipated that every attempt will be made to ensure that biosafety regulations are consistent with the US interpretation of the WTO rules, rather than the Biosafety Protocol." Read the full report at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2277

See the GMWATCH profile of USAID head Andrew Natsios at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=186
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=165

2. FLORENCE WAMBUGU, MONSANTO-TRAINED SCIENTIST
One of the GM industry's most tireless advocates in Africa is the Monsanto-trained scientist Dr Florence Wambugu. The following is an excerpt from the GMWATCH profile of Wambugu:

"Nobody has ever claimed that GM is the answer to world hunger," Mo