29/November/21

 

The GM industry played a key role in setting the agenda that former (and now disgraced) MP Owen Paterson promoted after he became UK environment secretary. Also playing an important part was Matt Ridley, brother of Paterson's late wife and sole policy advisor to his UK 2020 think tank. According to Ridley, rural Britain would be better off with more badger culls; GM crops like golden rice will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children; climate change is doing more good than harm; fracking has not produced a single environmental problem; wind power is a total fraud; and banning neonicotinoids is bad for bees. Paterson promoted these views and sought to act on them while in office, which helps explain why many regard him as Britain’s worst environment secretary ever. Meanwhile, Ridley remains an influential figure in his own right on UK science and technology policy, despite, like Paterson, being a climate denier. GMWatch

 

 

The EU Commission's genetic engineering deregulation plans threaten consumers, the "Produced Without Genetic Engineering" (“Ohne Gentechnik”) label – and the organic economy, says the German GMO-Free industry association VLOG. The new German government can play a decisive role in stopping these plans, says VLOG. According to the Commission, all options are still open. A “high-level conference” took place in Brussels today. GMWatch

 

 

A review of the EU assessment report from the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) on the toxicity of the popular pesticide glyphosate confirms that the evaluation is still mostly based on studies and arguments provided by the chemical industry and does not take into consideration all available scientific evidence showing health risks. GMWatch

 

 

Only two out of a group of 11 industry studies given to European regulators in support of the re-approval of the main ingredient in Roundup herbicide are scientifically “reliable”, according to a new analysis of corporate-backed studies on the chemical glyphosate. In a report released on Friday, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said their review of a set of safety studies submitted to EU regulators by Bayer AG and a coalition of other chemical companies showed that the vast majority do not meet current international standards for scientific validity. The Guardian