WTO Info (wto-info@iatp.org) Posted: 01/20/2003 By mritchie@iatp.org
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GM Update: "WEEKLY WATCH" - 13

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Excellent in-depth coverage of the latest GM news from the NGIN team. Something for everyone!

Please circulate if you can.

[Apologies for cross-posting]

Ron

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THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 13
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from Andy Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor

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Dear all

Welcome to WW13 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.

Even by the standards of the biotech brigade this has been an AMAZING week for HYPE. On the same day as devastatingly critical comments on GM crops were due to hit the UK media following publication of a report on GM by the Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament (see TOPIC OF THE WEEK), news popped up all over the place about how GM crops could "save the skylark", a bird endangered by intensive agriculture. The claims were based on research part-funded by Monsanto and, unusually, published by the Royal Society. Even the UK Government's Chief Scientific Advisor admitted on BBC radio that the key claims in the research were "not conclusively demonstrated." (see HYPE OF THE WEEK)

Interestingly, this exactly echoed what happened in 1999 when the British Medical Association produced a damning report on GM crops and the following day the first of three virulently pro-GM reports that week was released knocking the BMA story out of the headlines. That report also came from the Royal Society who were also shown to have orchestrated attacks on Dr Pusztai's article in the Lancet (see: http://ngin.tripod.com/rs.htm).

The day after the GM to save the skylark story, it was GM to save the banana!!! GM scientists "warned that, within 10 years, it could be a choice between genetically engineered bananas, or none." Not a difficult choice (even if true), I would have thought!!! And so think all the companies who are apparently refusing to put money into the GM banana research. Come to think of it, there's no market for GM sugar either.

What a week!

Andy andy@gmwatch.org
http://www.ngin.org.uk

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WEEKLY WATCH number 13 - CONTENTS

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - Govt buries more bad news/advisors abusing public trust/Indian govt lied/Aid agencies backdown over GM aid/EU vows to fight WTO suit/AgBioIndia suppressed

TOPIC OF THE WEEK - Damning report from Scottish Parliament's Health Committee on GM crop trials

REPORT OF THE WEEK - India's great GM potato hoax

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

FACTS OF THE WEEK

LIES FROM THE GM LOBBY

HYPE OF THE WEEK - GM to save the skylark (or GM-hype to save Monsanto!)

HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - GET ACTIVE internationally WITH SCOTTISH REPORT

SUBSCRIPTIONS

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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the NGIN archive
http://ngin.tripod.com/jan03.htm
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15 January 2003
GM beet research answers very few questions
Scientists Create Brand New Organism
Roundup becoming useless - New York Times
BMA delighted GM risks recognised by Health Committee
Government buries more bad news
U.S. challenge "a huge gamble"
Prof. King says beet research not validated
Pusztai on the Indian GM potato
USDA sued to stop GE grasses

14 January 2003
Europeans "threatening hungry African nations"
Health Committee to call for radical changesto GM crop trials
Indian government lied over GM cotton failure - Greenpeace India
Oxford Prof says keep GM in the lab - moratorium should stay
Immediate moratorium on GM crops call in Scotland
US Aid Agencies instructed to report anti-GMnations to USAID
Science Advisors Abusing Public Trust

13 January 2003 EU attacks as "scandalous" U.S.'s African linkage of WTO case
A clone in every pot?
India's GM potato hoax - Poviding proteins tothe poor

11 January 2003
'Against the grain': Guardian article on U.S.bully-boy tactics
Government Officials Uproot GM Maize Plants/moreon US embassy misinformation
Japan corn trade paralysed by Starlink fear
Roundup-resistance moves into the corn belt
Roundup-resistant weeds are cropping up
Attack against GM wheat
THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 12

10 January 2003
Roundup Resistance
US ready to declare war overGM food/India/Australia
Lack of U.S. safety standards for GM crops revealed in Brussels

9 January 2003
WHO 'infiltrated by food industry'
Rejected GM corn dumped in Australia
Anti-terror laws used against GM campaigner
GM protest charges dropped
Nestlé on feeding the hungry/Nestlé and Ethiopia
European nations back Zambia's stand on GM food

FOR THE COMPLETE NGIN ARCHIVE:http://ngin.tripod.com/nginlist.htm

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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The hugely important report from the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee needs the widest possible dissemination internationally. It is also an opportune time to write to Ross Finnie, the Minister responsible for GM in Scotland, demanding that he takes all the recommendations on board, and enforces an immediate moratorium on growing GM crops, at least until all the concerns raised have been addressed.

Contact details:
Ross Finnie
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EN99 1SP

Email: Ross.Finnie.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

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SUBSCRIPTIONS

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