23/April/21

 

On Friday April 30 2021, the European Commission will publish a study that will have a key influence over whether or not a new generation of GM crops will be exempt from EU safety, traceability and transparency rules. The study has already attracted controversy. Friends of the Earth Europe has criticised the European Commission for ignoring its own procedures by allowing the biotech industry to dominate the responses to the stakeholder consultation, as well as failing to respect transparency protocols. Now the environmental group has published a list of possible policy conclusions that could emerge from the study, along with its own view of the implications. GMWatch

 

 

Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America explains why the plans of a Salk Institute plant geneticist to grow GM carbon-sequestering plants with longer roots are a dangerous and unnecessary distraction. She concludes that regenerative organic agriculture is the most efficient way to sequester carbon. GMWatch

 

 

Activists from Japanese consumer organizations and farmers’ groups protested again against the unregulated GABA tomato on Earth Day, 22 April 2021. Sanatech Seed is introducing its genome-edited tomato this spring without any safety checks or mandatory labelling. “It is a genetically modified food and consumers have no idea if it is safe or not, and no way of avoiding it, once it reaches the market,” said one of the speakers at the protest action outside Sanatech’s offices in central Tokyo. Consumers Union of Japan