05/August/21

 

 

A just-published study carried out in a high-security lab claims to show that a CRISPR gene drive (a way of forcing a heritable genetic modification through a whole species or population) can crash populations of malaria-spreading mosquitoes. But why crash mosquito populations with a risky experimental technology if you can completely stop them spreading malaria naturally? A naturally occurring biocontrol agent – a microbe – that inhibits the development of the malaria parasite in the mosquito Anopheles arabiensis, which spreads malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa, has recently been reported in the journal Nature Communications. GMWatch

 

 

The Philippines has approved GMO golden rice for commercial production. This is in spite of the fact that no independent data on the safety of this GMO for health and the environment have been published; that beta-carotene, which the rice is engineered to contain, is one of the commonest molecules in nature and numerous native plants contain high levels; and that the US FDA says that GMO golden rice doesn't contain enough beta-carotene to justify a health claim. Moreover, it is still unknown if the beta-carotene in GMO golden rice can be converted to Vitamin A in the bodies of undernourished children. In addition, research shows that what beta-carotene there is in the rice is degraded by storage and cooking. Meanwhile, as the development of golden rice creeps along, the Philippines has managed to slash the incidence of Vitamin A deficiency by non-GMO methods. GMWatch

 

 

Following the approval of GMO golden rice for commercial production in the Philippines, farmers, consumers, and scientist organisations from that country and the regional forum, the Stop Golden Rice! Network have highlighted the lack of transparency, lack of public consultation, and lack of independent and comprehensive risk and impact assessments. They also point out important questions that have not been answered, such as what quantity of daily consumption of golden rice would be required to improve the vitamin A level in children who are vitamin A deficient. Nevertheless, Bangladesh is now being targeted for regulatory approval of golden rice. New Age

 

 

In ongoing discussions about the regulation of genome edited organisms in the UK and the EU, existing regulation to prevent harm to human and planetary health is often portrayed as the ‘bad guy’ trying to curb progress. What if we look at GMO-regulation in a different way? How to think of and design policy frameworks of care that support people- and earth-centred or agroecological processes of change? Barbara Van Dyck unpacks the narratives that underpin corporate campaigns to deregulate new technologies of genetic engineering. Agroecology Now!

 

 

Bayer has announced it will no longer sell glyphosate-based herbicides to US gardeners as of 2023, following the costly litigation battle over their cancer causing weedkiller Roundup. Bayer Monsanto stated that “the company and its partners will replace its glyphosate-based products in the US residential Lawn & Garden market with new formulations that rely on alternative active ingredients beginning in 2023, subject to a timely review by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state counterparts… As the vast majority of claims in the litigation come from Lawn & Garden market users, this action largely eliminates the primary source of future claims beyond an assumed latency period. There will be no change in the availability of the company’s glyphosate formulations in the US professional and agricultural markets.” Sustainable Pulse

 

 

The residential market will now shift to other toxic weedkillers for glyphosate uses unless the public initiates a shift in their purchasing practices and communities decide to transition to land management practices not dependent on toxic substances, says Beyond Pesticides, in an analysis of Bayer's glyphosate move (see above). The decision to withdraw from the residential market for glyphosate is a rerun of Dow Chemical’s decision in 2000 to stop residential uses of the highly neurotoxic, brain-damaging insecticide chlorpyrifos. The chemical was removed from the residential market after extensive scientific study showed the adverse impact on children, but has remained in agricultural use for over 20 years until this day, due to EPA’s sustained inaction in the face of strong science. Beyond Pesticides

 

 

Despite Bayer’s efforts to put an end to costly litigation inherited in its acquisition of Monsanto, opening statements in yet another trial are set for Thursday as a woman suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma claims Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused her cancer. A jury of seven men and five women have been seated in the case of Donnetta Stephens v. Monsanto in the Superior Court of San Bernardino County in California. Judge Gilbert Ochoa was hearing last-minute arguments over evidence on Wednesday. US Right to Know

 

 

A newly uncovered confidential US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found “suggestive evidence” linking glyphosate to Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a determination that goes against the agency’s long-held public regulatory stance that glyphosate is not a carcinogen. Sustainable Pulse

 

 

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, was a central figure behind two landmark documents published by influential science journals that played a key role in shutting down discussion of the lab leak hypothesis for over a year by branding it a conspiracy theory. He was also behind some critical conference calls in the earliest days of the pandemic that seem to have made key experts, who we now know privately thought a lab leak highly likely, start saying the exact opposite. Yet Farrar’s account of these events is full of holes and he has refused to answer questions about them, reports Ian Birrell. Unherd

 

An analysis of wild virus relatives of SARS-CoV-2 reveals that they form a coherent group with a geographically ordered genetic structure. Because of this geographic ordering the location from which human SARS-CoV-2 originated, i.e. the locality where its direct ancestor jumped from the bat reservoir, could be identified with high confidence. Using two different approaches, which gave the same result, this location was determined to be a comparatively small region of south-central Yunnan, China. While a south-central Yunnan source does not rule out either a lab or a zoonotic origin in principle, the result compels all candidate hypotheses to incorporate a plausible link with that locality. Independent Science News